Journal profile · SURGERY
Patient Safety in Surgery
ISSN 1754-9493 · BMC · United Kingdom
Patient Safety in Surgery: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.3 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 3,290; median 58 days to acceptance (92 articles, last 24 months); 45 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Patient Safety in Surgery is published by BMC 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 Patient Safety and Medication Errors, Cardiac, Anesthesia and Surgical Outcomes and Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues, together about 31.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Surgery. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Patient Safety in Surgery is an open access journal that publishes articles on all issues related to safety and quality of patient care in surgery and surgical subspecialties. The journal provides a scientific platform for specialists from all surgical fields and for other healthcare professionals to report, discuss, debate, and critically review all aspects related to errors, complications, and other safety issues in the management of patients undergoing surgical procedures. Morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing surgical procedures may, in large part, be preventable. The key to improving the management of adverse events in surgery is understanding their causes. These range from “simple” individual errors in surgical technique and perioperative decision making to system errors in hospitals, and extend as far as to general healthcare issues in politics. An evidence-based approach to quality improvement in surgical care must include the analysis of incidence and pattern of adverse events. This is particularly true for the analysis of procedures that did not result in an adverse event but had strong potential to, thus bearing the risk of these cases being neglected or trivialized, instead of being reported and reviewed as a “true” complication.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): SURGERY
Editor-in-chief Philip F StahelPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 2%); most named United States 36, Germany 6, Switzerland 5, United Kingdom 4, Sweden 2 (61 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Patient Safety and Medication ErrorsHealth Professions12.7%
- Cardiac, Anesthesia and Surgical OutcomesMedicine10.7%
- Medical Malpractice and Liability IssuesHealth Professions8.2%
- Surgical site infection preventionMedicine6.6%
- Bone fractures and treatmentsMedicine5.3%
- Hip and Femur FracturesMedicine4.4%
- Pelvic and Acetabular InjuriesMedicine4.4%
- Spinal Fractures and Fixation TechniquesMedicine3.9%
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 | Surgery | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Surgery | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EmbaseCASPublisher 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 (publisher) 2025
- 3.3Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.89LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.95LetPub ·
- h-index
- 51OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 362OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 5.18OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 12.1%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 40LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 554,800Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 741 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 43 | 43 | 11 |
| 2025 | 45 | 45 | 183 |
| 2024 | 38 | 38 | 459 |
| 2023 | 31 | 31 | 234 |
| 2022 | 40 | 40 | 545 |
| 2021 | 37 | 37 | 787 |
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
58 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 36 days – 74 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 20 days (92 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 80 days
- Sample
- 92 articles with submission and acceptance dates (99 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 9 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 9 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single 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
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | EUR 2,790 / USD 3,290 / GBP 2,390 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,290 / EUR 2,790 / GBP 2,390 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,190 / USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 | Yes | — |
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 websiteExcerpts 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
- BMC
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1754-9493
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- 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 Patient Safety in Surgery
What CAS zone is Patient Safety in Surgery in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Patient Safety in Surgery is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Surgery. 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 Patient Safety in Surgery?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 3.3 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 4.6, h-index 51.
How long does peer review take at Patient Safety in Surgery?
Based on the dates recorded on 92 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 58 days (interquartile range 36–74 days); authors report an average review time of about 9 weeks. 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Patient Safety in Surgery based?
Of the 61 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 2%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (36), Germany (6) and Switzerland (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Patient Safety in Surgery?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Patient Safety in Surgery is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Embase and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Patient Safety in Surgery open access, and what is the APC?
Patient Safety in Surgery is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,290.
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 2026-08-24). Last updated: .