Journal profile · PSYCHIATRY
International Journal of Mental Health Systems
ISSN 1752-4458 · BMC · United Kingdom
International Journal of Mental Health Systems: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.11; fully open access; APC about USD 3,790; median 239 days to acceptance (84 articles, last 24 months); 36 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
International Journal of Mental Health Systems is published by BMC and is in Zone 2 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Mental Health Treatment and Access, Schizophrenia research and treatment and Family Caregiving in Mental Illness, together about 43.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Clinical Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
International Journal of Mental Health Systems (IJMHS) publishes the latest mental health research and health systems research, reviews, case studies and guidelines, policy, debates, technical and methodological advances, and lessons from the field that will advance and shape the emerging discipline of global mental health. Advances in understanding of, and treatments for, mental illness frequently do not benefit those who most need them because of poorly developed mental health systems. Globally there is increasing attention to mental health legislation and policy, mental health system financing and governance, mental health service design implementation and evaluation, human resource development, effective translation of research to inform mental health policies and programs. IJMHS is committed to promotion and protection of the human rights of people with mental illness.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): PSYCHIATRY
Editor-in-chief Jesse YoungPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 1%); most named Australia 16, United States 10, United Kingdom 9, India 5, Norway 5 (93 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychology26.4%
- Schizophrenia research and treatmentMedicine8.9%
- Family Caregiving in Mental IllnessPsychology8.4%
- Mental Health and Patient InvolvementHealth Professions7.2%
- Digital Mental Health InterventionsPsychology4.9%
- Psychiatric care and mental health servicesPsychology4.8%
- Health Policy Implementation ScienceHealth Professions4.6%
- Healthcare Decision-Making and RestraintsPsychology4.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
SCIEEmbasePsycINFOCASCAB AbstractsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS, Semantic Scholar
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 4.11LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.2Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 7.5LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.46LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.91LetPub ·
- h-index
- 88OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 706OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.56OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 35LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 1,500,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 970 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 47 | 47 | 15 |
| 2025 | 36 | 36 | 132 |
| 2024 | 37 | 37 | 400 |
| 2023 | 49 | 49 | 829 |
| 2022 | 58 | 58 | 1,360 |
| 2021 | 88 | 88 | 2,686 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
239 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 177 days – 347 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 19 days (84 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 267 days
- Sample
- 84 articles with submission and acceptance dates (88 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 13 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 59 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 13 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 3,090 / USD 3,790 / GBP 2,790 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,590 / EUR 2,890 / GBP 2,590 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,490 / USD 3,390 / EUR 2,790 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,790 / USD 3,790 / EUR 3,090 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare1 items from the author guidelines
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted7
- brief reportResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- commentResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- correspondenceResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- debateResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- research articleResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
- systematic reviewResearch article Comment Debate Brief report Systematic review Correspondence Matters ArisingLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Data availability strongly encouraged or required; deposit in public repositories where appropriate; 'Availability of data and materials' section required. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY licence; authors retain copyright. Model summary
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. International Journal of Mental Health Systems articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creat…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- BMC
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1752-4458
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about International Journal of Mental Health Systems
What CAS zone is International Journal of Mental Health Systems in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, International Journal of Mental Health Systems is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Psychiatry. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of International Journal of Mental Health Systems?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.11; CiteScore 7.5, h-index 88.
How long does peer review take at International Journal of Mental Health Systems?
Based on the dates recorded on 84 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 239 days (interquartile range 177–347 days); authors report an average review time of about 13 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of International Journal of Mental Health Systems based?
Of the 93 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 1%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Australia (16), United States (10) and United Kingdom (9). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index International Journal of Mental Health Systems?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, International Journal of Mental Health Systems is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists SCIE, Embase, PsycINFO, CAS and CAB Abstracts; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is International Journal of Mental Health Systems open access, and what is the APC?
International Journal of Mental Health Systems is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,790.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-24). Last updated: .