Journal profile · Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Molecular Imaging
ISSN 1535-3508 · eISSN 1536-0121 · SAGE Publications Inc. · UNITED STATES · Bimonthly · Founded 2002
Molecular Imaging: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.15; fully open access; APC about USD 2,175; median 103 days to acceptance (17 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: moderate; 4 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Molecular Imaging is published by SAGE Publications Inc. 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 Medical Imaging Techniques and Applications, Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry and Applications and Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics, together about 28.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Molecular Imaging is a peer-reviewed, open access journal highlighting the breadth of molecular imaging research from basic science to preclinical studies to human applications. This serves both the scientific and clinical communities by disseminating novel results and concepts relevant to the biological study of normal and disease processes in both basic and translational studies ranging from mice to humans.
Source: LetPub
Research area (LetPub): Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Medical Imaging Techniques and ApplicationsMedicine13.7%
- Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry and ApplicationsMedicine8.3%
- Nanoplatforms for cancer theranosticsEngineering6.6%
- Advanced MRI Techniques and ApplicationsMedicine6.4%
- Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic ImagingEngineering5.9%
- bioluminescence and chemiluminescence researchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.8%
- Virus-based gene therapy researchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.5%
- Cancer Research and TreatmentsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.9%
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 | Biochemical Research Methods | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biochemical Research Methods | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging | 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 | Biochemical Research Methods | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- 2.15LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.2Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.56LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.61LetPub ·
- h-index
- 56LetPub ·
- h-index
- 76OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 563OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 6OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 4LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,022 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 11 | 11 | 5 |
| 2025 | 4 | 4 | 23 |
| 2024 | 12 | 12 | 134 |
| 2023 | 9 | 9 | 101 |
| 2022 | 22 | 22 | 177 |
| 2021 | 120 | 120 | 297 |
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
103 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 76 days – 137 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 28 days (17 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 123 days
- Sample
- 17 articles with submission and acceptance dates (19 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)
- over 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- ModerateLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 7.8%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 6 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 84 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 26 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Anonymous peer reviewLetPub
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 accessOpenAlex
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 2,175 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,175 | 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)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 150–200 words
- Reference style
- Vancouver
Article types accepted9
- brief reportPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Molecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Repor…Length not stated
- brief reportsMolecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Reports, Reviews and Meeting Reports.Length not stated
- meeting reportsMolecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Reports, Reviews and Meeting Reports.Length not stated
- original articlePlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Molecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Repor…Length not stated
- research articlePlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Molecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Repor…Length not stated
- research articlesMolecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Reports, Reviews and Meeting Reports.Length not stated
- research reportPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Molecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Repor…Length not stated
- reviewPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Molecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Repor…Length not stated
- reviewsMolecular Imaging publishes Research Articles, Brief Reports, Reviews and Meeting Reports.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 submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, the following fees apply: XXXXXXX Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish ope…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Single anonymized peer review 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 reject…
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
Preprints accepted Model summary
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 not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
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 Publications Inc.
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Bimonthly
- Founded
- 2002
- ISSN
- 1535-3508
- Electronic ISSN
- 1536-0121
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Molecular Imaging
What CAS zone is Molecular Imaging in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Molecular Imaging is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Biochemical Research Methods / Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging. 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 Molecular Imaging?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.15; CiteScore 4.7, h-index 76.
How long does peer review take at Molecular Imaging?
Based on the dates recorded on 17 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 103 days (interquartile range 76–137 days); authors report an average review time of over 12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Moderate”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 7.8%. 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 Molecular Imaging?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 150–200 words; Reference style: Vancouver. 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 Molecular Imaging?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Molecular Imaging is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Molecular Imaging open access, and what is the APC?
Molecular Imaging is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,175.
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: .