Journal profile · Psychiatry
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
ISSN 0933-7954 · eISSN 1433-9285 · Springer Berlin Heidelberg · GERMANY · Monthly · Founded 1966
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology: CAS Zone 2 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.44; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,390; median 227 days to acceptance (102 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: easy; 211 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg and is in Zone 2 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Mental Health Treatment and Access, Schizophrenia research and treatment and Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development, together about 37.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Clinical Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is intended to provide a medium for the prompt publication of scientific contributions concerned with all aspects of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders - social, biological and genetic. In addition, the journal has a particular focus on the effects of social conditions upon behaviour and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the social environment. Contributions may be of a clinical nature provided they relate to social issues, or they may deal with specialised investigations in the fields of social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, health service research, health economies or public mental health. We will publish papers on cross-cultural and trans-cultural themes. We do not publish case studies or small case series. While we will publish studies of reliability and validity of new instruments of interest to our readership, we will not publish articles reporting on the performance of established instruments in translation. Both original work and review articles may be submitted. Related fields of interest: Social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology health service research, health economics, social administration.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Psychiatry
Editor-in-chief Ulrich ReininghausPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 1%); most named United Kingdom 26, Germany 10, United States 9, Australia 4, Canada 3 (69 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychology17%
- Schizophrenia research and treatmentMedicine13.7%
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychology7%
- Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesPsychology6.5%
- Health disparities and outcomesSocial Sciences5.3%
- Family Caregiving in Mental IllnessPsychology5.1%
- Migration, Health and TraumaPsychology3.8%
- Psychiatric care and mental health servicesPsychology3.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Psychiatry | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIESSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
MEDLINEPsycINFOCAB AbstractsCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, 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
- 3.44LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 7.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.58LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.75LetPub ·
- h-index
- 108LetPub ·
- h-index
- 202OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 4,107OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.94OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 56.53%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 205LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,000,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 5,792 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 179 | 111 | 38 |
| 2025 | 211 | 138 | 426 |
| 2024 | 210 | 133 | 1,302 |
| 2023 | 190 | 134 | 2,386 |
| 2022 | 203 | 149 | 4,006 |
| 2021 | 210 | 147 | 5,615 |
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
227 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 155 days – 311 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 17 days (102 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 256 days
- Sample
- 102 articles with submission and acceptance dates (435 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)
- 3–6 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 35 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer review, Double 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
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 4,390 / EUR 3,390 / GBP 2,790 | — | — |
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.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 150–250 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 4
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 4,500 words
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted9, with length limits
- brief reportPapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…main text ≤ 1,500 words
- commentAccepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Length not stated
- correspondencePapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…Length not stated
- editorialPapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…Length not stated
- protocolPapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…Length not stated
- researchAccepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Length not stated
- research paperPapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…main text ≤ 4,500 words
- reviewPapers must be written in English.Accepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Research papers…Length not stated
- study protocolAccepted article types: Research, Review, Brief Report, Editorial, Comment, Correspondence, and Study Protocol.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- AI use Generative AI Images
Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein. Back to top
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Authorship principles
These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to. Authorship clarified The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflict of interest
Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. This note should be added in a separate section before the reference list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Back to top
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability statements
All original research must include a data availability statement. This statement should explain how to access data supporting the results and analysis in the article, including links/citations to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Please see our full policy here. If it is not possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be com…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical standards
Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement to the effect that all human and animal studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed conse…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright
Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under a Creative Commons license. Details of the OA licences offered to authors can be found on the individual journal website, in the journal's How to publish with us guide. Back to top
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access publishing
To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, including information on fees, funding and licences, visit our Open access publishing page. Back to top
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Single-blind peer review
Single-blind peer review Model summary
This journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. Back to top
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical Trial Registration
The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a clinical trial is "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes". The WHO defines health interventions as “A health intervention is an act performed for, with or on behalf of a person or population whose purpose is to ass…
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
- Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Country or region
- GERMANY
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1966
- ISSN
- 0933-7954
- Electronic ISSN
- 1433-9285
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 61, Issue 8 (August 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
What CAS zone is Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is in Zone 2 of Medicine, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Psychiatry. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.44; CiteScore 7.7, h-index 202.
How long does peer review take at Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology?
Based on the dates recorded on 102 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 227 days (interquartile range 155–311 days); authors report an average review time of 3–6 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 150–250 words; Keywords: ≥ 4; Manuscript length: ≤ 4,500 words; Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; 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 Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology based?
Of the 69 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 1%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (26), Germany (10) and United States (9). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CAB Abstracts and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology open access, and what is the APC?
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,390.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .