Is Nature Reviews Cancer Indexed in PubMed? Yes, With Active MEDLINE Coverage
Nature Reviews Cancer is indexed in PubMed and currently indexed for MEDLINE, with searchable coverage beginning from volume 1, issue 1 in October 2001.
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Nature Reviews Cancer at a glance
Key metrics to place the journal before deciding whether it fits your manuscript and career goals.
What makes this journal worth targeting
- IF 66.8 puts Nature Reviews Cancer in a visible tier — citations from papers here carry real weight.
- Scope specificity matters more than impact factor for most manuscript decisions.
- Acceptance rate of ~~2-5% means fit determines most outcomes.
When to look elsewhere
- When your paper sits at the edge of the journal's stated scope — borderline fit rarely improves after submission.
- If timeline matters: Nature Reviews Cancer takes ~~60-90 days median. A faster-turnaround journal may suit a grant or job deadline better.
- If open access is required by your funder, verify the journal's OA agreements before submitting.
Quick answer: yes.
Nature Reviews Cancer is indexed in PubMed, currently indexed for MEDLINE, and searchable from volume 1, issue 1 in October 2001. That matters because review journals live or die on rediscovery.
A paper here needs to be easy to find when oncology readers search by disease, pathway, therapy class, or resistance mechanism months or years after publication.
Direct answer
If you publish a review in Nature Reviews Cancer, the article is discoverable in PubMed and the journal remains actively indexed for MEDLINE.
NLM field | What the record shows | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
publication start year | 2001 | the review title has long-running continuity |
PubMed coverage | v1n1, Oct. 2001- | searchable coverage starts from the first issue |
MEDLINE coverage | v1n1, Oct. 2001- | the journal sits inside the curated NLM journal index |
current indexing status | Currently indexed for MEDLINE | this is active indexing, not leftover archive presence |
current subset | Index Medicus | the title sits inside the standard biomedical indexing structure |
NLM subject cues | Neoplasms; Research | the record reflects disease-focused oncology discoverability |
That is the practical answer. The journal is visible in PubMed, active in MEDLINE, and searchable continuously from launch.
Why this matters for Nature Reviews Cancer
The point of Nature Reviews Cancer is not only prestige. It is synthesis value and reuse. The strongest pieces often need to reach:
- cancer biologists entering a topic
- translational oncology teams
- clinicians scanning a therapy class or resistance pattern
- grant and review authors building field overviews
- trainees trying to orient themselves quickly in a crowded literature
Those readers usually search by disease area, pathway, drug class, biomarker, or resistance logic rather than by browsing the journal issue. PubMed indexing matters because it helps a review surface inside that real oncology workflow.
For review titles, discoverability matters differently than it does for primary-research journals. A research paper may peak at publication. A review often earns its value by being rediscovered repeatedly over time.
What the indexing record tells you in practice
Practical question | What the record tells you |
|---|---|
will a published review be easy to find in oncology search behavior? | yes |
is the title actively indexed for MEDLINE? | yes |
does searchable coverage begin from launch? | yes |
does indexing prove your article is right for a review-led flagship? | no |
does indexing tell you whether the piece is commissionable or broad enough? | no |
That last distinction matters because the database answer is straightforward. The editorial-model answer is not.
PubMed versus MEDLINE for Nature Reviews Cancer
- PubMed means the review is visible in the main biomedical search interface.
- MEDLINE means the journal remains part of the curated NLM journal index.
- Index Medicus indicates the title sits inside the standard biomedical indexing structure.
For this journal, the difference is not dramatic because PubMed and MEDLINE start together. What matters is that the review is easy to rediscover through the main oncology search pathways used by scientists and clinicians.
How this compares with nearby journals
Journal pattern | What the indexing record usually supports | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|
Nature Reviews Cancer | broad oncology discoverability for syntheses and conceptual reviews | whether the article is invited, broad enough, or timely enough |
Cancer Discovery or Cancer Cell | strong discoverability for primary research | whether a review format is the right vehicle |
narrower oncology review venues | visibility within one oncology slice | cross-topic flagship review reach |
general cancer journals | disease visibility for research papers | whether a synthesis piece is shaped correctly for a reviews title |
This is the useful submission implication. Indexing is not the limiting factor for Nature Reviews Cancer. Commissionability, breadth, and synthesis quality are the limiting factors.
How to verify the indexing record yourself
If you want to check this directly, the process is short:
- open the NLM Catalog record
- confirm the PubMed and MEDLINE coverage lines
- confirm Current Indexing Status
- confirm the Current Subset line
- run a direct PubMed journal search for recent review articles
- compare those results with the official journal site
That manual check is useful because it confirms that the discoverability story is clean from launch and not dependent on a later indexing event.
What we see in PubMed-Indexing Questions for Nature Reviews Cancer
For PubMed-indexing questions for Nature Reviews Cancer, three patterns come up repeatedly.
The review-versus-research confusion. Authors sometimes ask about PubMed indexing when the real question is whether they are holding a proper review-journal article rather than a research-style narrative. Indexing does not answer that. Editorial format does.
The visibility-equals-invitation shortcut. We also see authors assume that because the journal is highly visible in PubMed, any strong review has a realistic shot. That is not how this journal works. Visibility does not substitute for commissionability, fit, or conceptual breadth.
The rediscovery blind spot. Another common miss is underestimating how much review influence depends on repeated discovery. For this title, PubMed visibility is not a minor metadata detail. It is part of the journal’s actual long-tail value.
What indexing does and does not tell you
This page answers the discoverability question. It does not answer whether your article is the right piece for Nature Reviews Cancer.
Indexing tells you:
- the published review will be visible in oncology search
- the title is actively indexed for MEDLINE
- searchable coverage begins from the first issue
Indexing does not tell you:
- whether the article is broad enough for the journal
- whether the piece is likely to be invited or welcomed
- whether a primary-research venue would be strategically more realistic
That is why the better next reads are:
If the fit question is what you actually need answered, a Nature Reviews Cancer submission readiness check gives you a manuscript-specific signal before you submit.
What the NLM record means in practice for authors
The useful part of the Nature Reviews Cancer record is not merely that the journal appears in PubMed. It is that the discoverability story is clean from launch and aligned with how review literature is actually used.
The title begins in 2001, and the searchable PubMed and MEDLINE coverage begins there as well. That means a review published here is built to re-enter oncology search workflows reliably over time.
The NLM subject cue of neoplasms also fits the journal’s real role. This is not a generic cell-biology review venue. It is a cancer-focused synthesis venue. That makes PubMed discoverability especially relevant because readers tend to search by disease or therapeutic problem, not just by journal title.
Submit If / Think Twice If
Use this indexing answer as enough reassurance if:
- your main concern is whether a published review will be easy to rediscover in oncology search workflows
- you want confirmation that the title remains actively indexed for MEDLINE
- you need a clean citation showing searchable coverage from launch
Think twice if:
- you are using PubMed inclusion as a shortcut for review-journal fit
- the piece may still read more like a research paper than a commissionable review
- what you actually need is a format-and-scope judgment rather than a database-status answer
Readiness check
Run the scan while the topic is in front of you.
See score, top issues, and journal-fit signals before you submit.
Practical verdict
Yes, Nature Reviews Cancer is indexed in PubMed and currently indexed for MEDLINE, with searchable coverage from volume 1, issue 1 in October 2001.
If your question is whether a published review will be visible in the oncology literature workflow, the answer is clearly yes. If your real question is whether your article is shaped correctly for a review-led flagship venue, that is the harder fit call. A Nature Reviews Cancer submission readiness check is the best next step if you want that answer before submission.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Nature Reviews Cancer is indexed in PubMed and currently indexed for MEDLINE according to the NLM Catalog.
The NLM Catalog shows PubMed and MEDLINE coverage from volume 1, issue 1 in October 2001.
Because influential oncology reviews are often rediscovered by disease, pathway, resistance mechanism, or therapy search rather than by journal browsing.
Open the journal’s NLM Catalog record, confirm the PubMed and MEDLINE coverage lines plus current indexing status, then run a direct PubMed journal search for recent Nature Reviews Cancer articles.
Sources
- 1. Nature Reviews Cancer NLM Catalog record, NLM.
- 2. NLM Catalog help: current indexing status, NLM.
- 3. Nature Reviews Cancer journal page, Springer Nature.
- 4. Nature Reviews Cancer author instructions, Springer Nature.
- 5. Nature Reviews Cancer in PubMed, PubMed.
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