Journal profile · Chemistry, Medicinal
Letters in Drug Design & Discovery
ISSN 1570-1808 · eISSN 1875-628X · Bentham Science Publishers B.V. · UNITED STATES · Bimonthly · Founded 2004
Letters in Drug Design & Discovery: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.53; hybrid open access; APC about USD 2,300; review about 3 months (community reports); community-reported acceptance: easy; 272 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Letters in Drug Design & Discovery is published by Bentham Science Publishers B.V. 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 Synthesis and biological activity, Computational Drug Discovery Methods and Synthesis and Characterization of Heterocyclic Compounds, together about 48.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Organic Chemistry and Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Aims & Scope Letters in Drug Design & Discovery publishes letters, mini-reviews, highlights and guest edited thematic issues in all areas of rational drug design and discovery including medicinal chemistry, in-silico drug design, combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening, drug targets, and structure-activity relationships. The emphasis is on publishing quality papers very rapidly by taking full advantage of latest Internet technology for both submission and review of manuscripts. The online journal is an essential reading to all pharmaceutical scientists involved in research in drug design and discovery.
Source: LetPub
Research area (LetPub): Chemistry, Medicinal
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Synthesis and biological activityChemistry23.5%
- Computational Drug Discovery MethodsComputer Science13.7%
- Synthesis and Characterization of Heterocyclic CompoundsChemistry11.3%
- Click Chemistry and ApplicationsChemistry4.8%
- Chemical Synthesis and AnalysisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.5%
- Synthesis and Biological EvaluationChemistry4.4%
- Synthesis and Reactions of Organic CompoundsChemistry3.1%
- Cancer therapeutics and mechanismsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology2.9%
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 | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | 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 | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
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
- 1.53LetPub ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.3LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.38LetPub ·
- h-index
- 28LetPub ·
- h-index
- 40OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 588OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.22OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.2%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 30.21%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 227LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,441 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 180 | 180 | 28 |
| 2025 | 272 | 251 | 418 |
| 2024 | 110 | 7 | 238 |
| 2023 | 226 | 21 | 840 |
| 2022 | 248 | 4 | 1,498 |
| 2021 | 89 | 8 | 479 |
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
Too few articlesOnly 2 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
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 3 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
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
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 2,300 | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Bentham Science Publishers B.V.
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Bimonthly
- Founded
- 2004
- ISSN
- 1570-1808
- Electronic ISSN
- 1875-628X
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Letters in Drug Design & Discovery
What CAS zone is Letters in Drug Design & Discovery in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Letters in Drug Design & Discovery is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Chemistry, Medicinal. 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 Letters in Drug Design & Discovery?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.53; CiteScore 2.2, h-index 40.
How long does peer review take at Letters in Drug Design & Discovery?
Authors report an average review time of about 3 months; 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.
Which databases index Letters in Drug Design & Discovery?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Letters in Drug Design & Discovery is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is Letters in Drug Design & Discovery open access, and what is the APC?
Letters in Drug Design & Discovery is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 2,300.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex; 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: .