Journal profile · Medicine, General & Internal
SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL
ISSN 0256-9574 · eISSN 2078-5135 · South African Medical Association · SOUTH AFRICA · Monthly · Founded 1932
SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.15; fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 118 days to acceptance (61 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: easy; 145 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL is published by South African Medical Association 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 HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses, HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions and Primary Care and Health Outcomes, together about 21.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The SAMJ is a monthly, peer-reviewed, internationally indexed, general medical journal publishing leading research impacting clinical care in southern Africa. The Journal is not limited to articles that have ‘general medical content’, but is intending to capture the spectrum of medical and health sciences, grouped by relevance to the country’s burden of disease. This will include research in the social sciences and economics that is relevant to the medical issues around our burden of disease The journal carries research articles and letters, editorials, clinical practice and other medical articles and personal opinion, South African health-related news, obituaries, general correspondence, and classified advertisements (refer to the section policies for further information). The South African Medical Association is the official publisher of the SAMJ. SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Events | Careers | CPD
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Medicine, General & Internal
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named South Africa 23 (23 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- HIV/AIDS Impact and ResponsesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance7.4%
- HIV/AIDS Research and InterventionsMedicine6.9%
- Primary Care and Health OutcomesHealth Professions6.9%
- Global Maternal and Child HealthMedicine6.5%
- Child and Adolescent HealthHealth Professions5.9%
- Tuberculosis Research and EpidemiologyMedicine5.1%
- Global Health Workforce IssuesHealth Professions4.9%
- Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive HealthHealth Professions4.6%
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 | Medicine, General & Internal | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Medicine, General & Internal | 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 | Medicine, General & Internal | 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
- 1.15LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 1.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 1.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.37LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.66LetPub ·
- h-index
- 53LetPub ·
- h-index
- 67OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,450OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.78OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 14.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 73.7%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 82LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 7,289 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 112 | 112 | 11 |
| 2025 | 145 | 145 | 89 |
| 2024 | 100 | 100 | 177 |
| 2023 | 123 | 123 | 451 |
| 2022 | 144 | 144 | 861 |
| 2021 | 265 | 265 | 1,492 |
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
118 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 79 days – 192 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 208 days (61 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 339 days
- Sample
- 61 articles with submission and acceptance dates (280 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)
- 4–8 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 10 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
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | ZAR 7,440 | Yes | CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | ZAR 5,732 | — | — | |
| LetPub | ZAR 7,440 | 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)
Article types accepted4, with length limits
- book reviewGuideline word limit: 400 words Should be about 400 words and must be accompanied by the publication details of the book. Provide a hi-res image of the cover if…main text ≤ 400 words
- correspondenceGuideline word limit: 500 words Letters to the editor should relate either to a paper or article published by the SAMJ or to a topical issue of particular relev…main text ≤ 500 words
- editorialGuideline word limit: 1 000 words These opinion or comment articles are usually commissioned but we are happy to consider and peer review unsolicited editorials…Length not stated
- reviewGuideline word limit: 4 000 words These are welcome, but should be either commissioned or discussed with the Editor before submission. A review article should p…abstract ≤ 150 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright
- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Copyright of published material remains in the Authors’ name. This allows authors to use their work for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from the Publisher, subject to properly acknowledging the Journal as the original place of publication. Authors are free to copy, print and distribute their articles, in full or in part, for teaching activities, and to deposit or inclu…
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
- South African Medical Association
- Country or region
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1932
- ISSN
- 0256-9574
- Electronic ISSN
- 2078-5135
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 116, Issue 8 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- 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 SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL
What CAS zone is SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Medicine, General & Internal. 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 SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.15; CiteScore 1.7, h-index 67.
How long does peer review take at SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL?
Based on the dates recorded on 61 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 118 days (interquartile range 79–192 days); authors report an average review time of 4–8 weeks; 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.
Where are the editorial board members of SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL based?
Of the 23 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are South Africa (23). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL open access, and what is the APC?
SAMJ SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .