Journal profile · Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery
ISSN 1749-8090 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Irregular · Founded 2006
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.55; fully open access; APC about USD 2,990; median 175 days to acceptance (97 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: easy; 543 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 4 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Aortic Disease and Treatment Approaches, Cardiac and Coronary Surgery Techniques and Cardiac Valve Diseases and Treatments, together about 31% of its articles. Its main subfields are Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is an open access journal that encompasses research in the fields of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery. The journal publishes original scientific research documenting clinical and experimental advances in cardiac, vascular and thoracic surgery, and related fields. The journal also welcomes papers from the fields of Respiratory Medicine that are directly relevant to the practice, outcomes, or advancement of cardiothoracic surgery. The mission of the journal is to promote scholarship and disseminate research and ideas that advance cardiothoracic and vascular surgery and improve the surgical and multidisciplinary care of patients with conditions affecting the heart, lungs, chest and vascular system. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is of interest to cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, cardiothoracic anaesthesiologists, cardiologists, chest physicians, basic scientists and allied health professionals.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Editor-in-chief Vipin ZamvarPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Aortic Disease and Treatment ApproachesMedicine10.9%
- Cardiac and Coronary Surgery TechniquesMedicine10.1%
- Cardiac Valve Diseases and TreatmentsMedicine10%
- Congenital Heart Disease StudiesMedicine7.1%
- Lung Cancer Diagnosis and TreatmentMedicine5.4%
- Cardiac Structural Anomalies and RepairMedicine5%
- Pleural and Pulmonary DiseasesMedicine4.7%
- Tracheal and airway disordersMedicine4.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINECASPublisher 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
- 1.55LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.6Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.45LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.86LetPub ·
- h-index
- 37LetPub ·
- h-index
- 78OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,624OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.57OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.2%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 533LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 3,600,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 6,252 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 850 | 850 | 70 |
| 2025 | 543 | 543 | 843 |
| 2024 | 702 | 702 | 2,372 |
| 2023 | 360 | 360 | 1,986 |
| 2022 | 344 | 344 | 2,594 |
| 2021 | 362 | 362 | 3,861 |
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
175 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 131 days – 239 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 15 days (97 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 196 days
- Sample
- 97 articles with submission and acceptance dates (1,561 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)
- 4–8 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 53 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 15 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Open 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 2,490 / USD 2,990 / GBP 2,190 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,890 / EUR 2,390 / GBP 2,090 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 1,990 / USD 2,790 / EUR 2,290 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,190 / USD 2,990 / EUR 2,490 | — | — |
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)
Open calls for papers1, by deadline
Publisher websiteWhat to prepare4 items from the author guidelines
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
- Not considered
- preprint
Article types accepted4
- case reportResearch Case report Review Matters ArisingLength not stated
- matters arisingResearch Case report Review Matters ArisingLength not stated
- researchResearch Case report Review Matters ArisingLength not stated
- reviewResearch Case report Review 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
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 articles published under CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY licences; 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. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery articles are published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons A…
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
- BioMed Central
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Irregular
- Founded
- 2006
- ISSN
- 1749-8090
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- 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 Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery
What CAS zone is Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems / Surgery. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 4 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.55; CiteScore 2.4, h-index 78.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery?
Based on the dates recorded on 97 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 175 days (interquartile range 131–239 days); authors report an average review time of 4–8 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Easy”. 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Suggested reviewers: Optional; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,990.
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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .