Journal profile · Medicine-Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
ISSN 2225-4110 · Elsevier · China
Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.76; diamond open access (no APC); no APC; median 287 days to acceptance (63 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 2% (journal website); 38 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine is published by Elsevier and is in Zone 3 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Diverse Scientific and Economic Studies, Natural Antidiabetic Agents Studies and Essential Oils and Antimicrobial Activity, together about 22.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Complementary and alternative medicine. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
eJTCM is committed to publish research providing the biological and clinical grounds for using Traditional, Medical or Integrative treatments as well as studies that demonstrate the pathophysiological and molecular/biochemical bases supporting the effectiveness of such treatments.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Medicine-Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Editor-in-chief Jaung-Geng LinPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 6 in mainland China (about 10%); most named Taiwan, China 28, United States 13, Mainland China 6, Japan 3, South Korea 3 (61 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Diverse Scientific and Economic StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance8.3%
- Natural Antidiabetic Agents StudiesMedicine8.1%
- Essential Oils and Antimicrobial ActivityAgricultural and Biological Sciences6%
- Phytochemicals and Antioxidant ActivitiesMedicine5.9%
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine StudiesMedicine5.6%
- Acupuncture Treatment Research StudiesMedicine5.5%
- Pharmacological Effects of Natural CompoundsPharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics5.5%
- Phytochemistry and Biological ActivitiesAgricultural and Biological Sciences5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Integrative & Complementary Medicine | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PubMedCINAHLPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest
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
- 3.76LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 3.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 7.3LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 7.3Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.79LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.9LetPub ·
- h-index
- 85OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 588OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.5OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 60LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,003 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 23 | 23 | 7 |
| 2025 | 38 | 38 | 54 |
| 2024 | 110 | 110 | 538 |
| 2023 | 86 | 86 | 697 |
| 2022 | 53 | 53 | 711 |
| 2021 | 94 | 94 | 1,796 |
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 PubMed · to
287 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 184 days – 389 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 3 days (63 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 291 days
- Sample
- 63 articles with submission and acceptance dates (134 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 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 2%Publisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 110 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 12 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double 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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| LetPub | No APC | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
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
- Reference style
- AMA
- Suggested reviewers
- Required, 3
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted9
- letterContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- original research paperContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- original research papersContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- perspectiveContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- perspectivesContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- review articleContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- review articlesContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- short communicationContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
- short communicationsContributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original Research Papers, Review Articles, Short Communications and Pers…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Changes to authorship
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of interest
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in two places:…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AGREEMENT'. Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a ' COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AGREEMENT ' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.Permission of the s…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review process
Single anonymized review process Model summary
Before you start your submission please read carefully the following information about our peer review process: https://legacyfileshare.elsevier.com/promis_misc/jtcme-peer-review-process.pdf.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the nam…
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
- Elsevier
- Country or region
- China
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2225-4110
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
What CAS zone is Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Integrative & Complementary Medicine. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.76; CiteScore 7.3, h-index 85.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine?
Based on the dates recorded on 63 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 287 days (interquartile range 184–389 days); authors report an average review time of about 12 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 2%. 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 Traditional and Complementary Medicine?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: AMA; Suggested reviewers: Required, 3; 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine based?
Of the 61 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 6 (about 10%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Taiwan, China (28), United States (13) and Mainland China (6). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PubMed and CINAHL; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .