Journal profile · Social Sciences-Law
Medical Law International
ISSN 0968-5332 · eISSN 2047-9441 · SAGE
Medical Law International: subscription journal; APC charged, amount not published; review about 138 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 27.4% (journal website); 23 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Medical Law International is published by SAGE. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Medical and Health Sciences Research, Ethics and bioethics in healthcare and Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues, together about 51.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Medical Law International is an international peer reviewed journal that seeks to address new and emerging issues in medical law, medical and bioethics, and health governance around the world. The journal has a strong emphasis on international and comparative trends in law and medicine, and the Editors welcome new papers that fall within the aims and scope of the journal. View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Law
Editor-in-chief Isra Black UCLPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United Kingdom 17, United States 3, Canada 3, Australia 2, Singapore 2 (32 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Medical and Health Sciences ResearchMedicine26.5%
- Ethics and bioethics in healthcareMedicine16.8%
- Medical Malpractice and Liability IssuesHealth Professions7.8%
- International Human Rights and Reproductive LawSocial Sciences5.1%
- Biomedical Ethics and RegulationMedicine4.8%
- Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric HealthcareMedicine4.4%
- Ethics in Clinical ResearchMedicine4%
- Healthcare Decision-Making and RestraintsPsychology3.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Q1 | 206/1162 | 82nd |
| General Medicine | Q2 | 178/669 | 73rd |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusLetPub
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.28LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.35LetPub ·
- h-index
- 22OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 62OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.44OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 494 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 19 | 19 | 154 |
| 2025 | 23 | 23 | 254 |
| 2024 | 20 | 20 | 198 |
| 2023 | 28 | 26 | 196 |
| 2022 | 15 | 10 | 187 |
| 2021 | 18 | 14 | 177 |
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
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
138 dayssubmission to acceptance
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 27.4%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 138 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 72 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
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
Subscription journalLetPub
A subscription journal: articles are read by subscription or purchase, and authors usually pay no publication charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Other fees
- Charged; see the journal's website for the amount
- Page charges
- No page charges
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
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 prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 150 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 12,000 words
- Reference style
- Chicago
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted10, with length limits
- article commentaryOpen Access Article commentary First published Jul 18, 2026Length not stated
- book reviewMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words. A list of up-to-date books for review i…main text ≤ 2,000 words
- book reviewsMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words.main text ≤ 2,000 words
- case reportOpen Access Case report First published Apr 24, 2023Length not stated
- commentaryMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words. A list of up-to-date books for review i…Length not stated
- correspondenceMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words. A list of up-to-date books for review i…Length not stated
- editorialMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words. A list of up-to-date books for review i…Length not stated
- papersMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words.main text ≤ 12,000 words
- research articleOpen Access Research article First published Aug 13, 2026Length not stated
- reviewMedical Law International publishes Papers up to 12,000 words inclusive of footnotes and Book Reviews up to 2,000 words. A list of up-to-date books for review i…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. Optional open access publi…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Single Anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal does not accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should n…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
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
- SAGE
- ISSN
- 0968-5332
- Electronic ISSN
- 2047-9441
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Medical Law International
How long does peer review take at Medical Law International?
The publisher reports about 138 days (submission to acceptance); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 27.4%. 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 Medical Law International?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 150 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 12,000 words; Reference style: Chicago; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional. 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 Medical Law International based?
Of the 32 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (17), United States (3) and Canada (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Medical Law International?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Medical Law International is indexed in Scopus.
Is Medical Law International open access, and what is the APC?
Medical Law International is a subscription journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, 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: .