Journal of Biomedical Science Impact Factor
Science impact factor is 45.8. See the current rank, quartile, and what the number actually means before you submit.
Associate Professor, Clinical Medicine & Public Health
Author context
Specializes in clinical and epidemiological research publishing, with direct experience preparing manuscripts for NEJM, JAMA, BMJ, and The Lancet.
Journal evaluation
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A fuller snapshot for authors
Use Science's impact factor as one signal, then stack it against selectivity, editorial speed, and the journal guide before you decide where to submit.
What this metric helps you decide
- Whether Science has the citation profile you want for this paper.
- How the journal compares to nearby options when prestige or visibility matters.
- Whether the citation upside is worth the likely selectivity and process tradeoffs.
What you still need besides JIF
- Scope fit and article-type fit, which matter more than a high number.
- Desk-rejection risk, which impact factor does not predict.
- Timeline and cost context.
How authors actually use Science's impact factor
Use the number to place the journal in the right tier, then check the harder filters: scope fit, selectivity, and editorial speed.
Use this page to answer
- Is Science actually above your next-best alternatives, or just more famous?
- Does the prestige upside justify the likely cost, delay, and selectivity?
- Should this journal stay on the shortlist before you invest in submission prep?
Check next
- Acceptance rate: <7%. High JIF does not tell you how hard triage will be.
- First decision: ~14 days to first decision. Timeline matters if you are under a grant, job, or revision clock.
- Publishing cost and article type, since those constraints can override prestige.
Quick answer: Journal of Biomedical Science has a 2024 JCR impact factor of 12.1, a five-year JIF of 12.0, and a Q1 rank of 9/195 in its primary category. The practical read is that this is no longer a quiet secondary option. It is a serious broad-biomedical journal where mechanistic depth and cross-field readability matter more than the portal being easy to use.
Journal of Biomedical Science impact factor at a glance
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Impact Factor | 12.1 |
5-Year JIF | 12.0 |
JIF Without Self-Cites | 12.0 |
JCI | 1.54 |
Quartile | Q1 |
Category Rank | 9/195 |
Total Cites | 10,531 |
Citable Items | 100 |
Cited Half-Life | 5.4 years |
Scopus impact score 2024 | 11.86 |
SJR 2024 | 3.172 |
h-index | 120 |
Publisher | BMC / Springer Nature |
ISSN | 1021-7770 / 1423-0127 |
That rank places the journal in roughly the top 5% of its primary JCR category.
What 12.1 actually tells you
The first useful signal is that the journal's citation performance is now well inside the upper tier of broad biomedical publishing. This is not a vanity jump built on heavy self-citation either. The JIF without self-cites is 12.0, almost identical to the reported JIF, which is a clean trust signal.
The second useful signal is that the journal has become stronger without becoming narrow. Authors often assume a broad biomedical title will be more permissive if the science is competent. The metrics suggest the opposite: the journal is broad in scope but still selective about whether the manuscript really advances a meaningful biomedical problem through molecular or mechanistic evidence.
The JCI of 1.54 supports that read. It shows the journal performs clearly above the field-normalized baseline rather than only inside one local citation pocket.
Journal of Biomedical Science impact factor trend
The JCR row above is the authoritative impact factor on this page. For the longer directional view, the table below uses the open Scopus-based impact score series as a trend proxy.
Year | Scopus impact score |
|---|---|
2014 | 3.24 |
2015 | 3.37 |
2016 | 3.09 |
2017 | 3.55 |
2018 | 5.40 |
2019 | 6.05 |
2020 | 7.77 |
2021 | 11.93 |
2022 | 10.78 |
2023 | 8.54 |
2024 | 11.86 |
Directionally, the open citation signal is up from 8.54 in 2023 to 11.86 in 2024. That is a material year-over-year rise after a softer 2023. The broader picture is even more useful: the journal has climbed far above its mid-2010s level and held onto that gain.
That usually means the market has repriced the journal. Authors who still think of it as a moderate secondary option are likely using an outdated mental model.
Why the number can mislead authors
The common mistake is to read 12.1 and assume the journal wants any respectable biomedical manuscript.
That is not how the scope is framed. The official aims emphasize fundamental and molecular aspects of basic medical sciences, with a specific focus on molecular studies of biomedical problems and molecular mechanisms.
In practice, the journal tends to reward papers where:
- the biomedical problem matters beyond one niche
- the mechanistic layer actually carries the claim
- the manuscript travels across adjacent biomedical readerships
- the medical relevance is shown in the evidence, not mostly declared in the discussion
That means the metric tells you the journal has reach. It does not tell you that a narrow or descriptive manuscript belongs there.
How Journal of Biomedical Science compares with nearby choices
Journal | Best fit | When it beats Journal of Biomedical Science | When Journal of Biomedical Science is stronger |
|---|---|---|---|
Journal of Biomedical Science | Broad molecular and mechanistic biomedical work | When the paper needs interdisciplinary biomedical reach | When the manuscript is broader than one specialty but not built around one physician-scientist niche |
JCI Insight | Disease-focused translational work | When human disease anchoring is stronger than broad biomedical breadth | When the paper is less physician-scientist-facing and more general biomedical |
Genome Biology | Omics and systems biology with broader platform consequence | When the manuscript is fundamentally a genomics or computational story | When the paper is a broader mechanistic biomedical study |
Strong specialty journal | Deep specialist readership | When the paper mainly matters inside one lane | When the paper genuinely travels outside the specialty |
This is why the journal converts best for manuscripts that are broader than a specialty outlet but more biologically grounded than a methods-first venue.
In our pre-submission review work
In our pre-submission review work on manuscripts targeting Journal of Biomedical Science, the repeating issue is not obvious weakness. It is overestimation of breadth.
We see authors assume that because the journal is broad and open access, the editorial bar will be forgiving. Editors actually screen for a broader readership case and a stronger mechanism than many manuscripts have on first submission.
What pre-submission reviews reveal about Journal of Biomedical Science submissions
In our pre-submission review work on manuscripts targeting Journal of Biomedical Science, four failure patterns recur.
The manuscript is technically strong but too local. It works for insiders, but the broader biomedical consequence is still hard to see.
The mechanism is thinner than the headline. Strong phenotypes, correlations, or pathway claims still fail if the molecular closure is not strong enough.
The medical relevance is rhetorical. The framing sounds biomedical, but the figures themselves do not yet carry that weight.
The first read undersells the problem. Editors actually have to see the biomedical problem and mechanistic consequence quickly, or the paper feels smaller than it is.
If that sounds like the draft, a Journal of Biomedical Science submission readiness check is usually more useful than another round of sentence-level polishing.
How to use this number in journal selection
Use the impact factor to place the journal correctly. It is now a serious upper-tier target for broad mechanistic biomedical work.
But do not use the number to justify a narrow paper. The better question is whether a reader outside your exact subfield can still understand why the result matters to a biomedical problem.
If the answer is no, a stronger specialty journal may be the more honest owner.
What the number does not tell you
The impact factor does not tell you whether the paper has enough mechanism, enough cross-field readability, or enough biomedical consequence for this journal. It also does not tell you whether the manuscript belongs in a disease-specific or specialty venue instead.
That is where most mismatches happen. The metric places the journal. It does not solve the breadth problem for the author.
Submit if / Think twice if
Submit if:
- the manuscript advances a real biomedical problem
- the molecular or mechanistic contribution is load-bearing
- the paper can travel outside one narrow specialty
- the title and abstract make the biomedical consequence visible quickly
Think twice if:
- the study is mostly descriptive
- the mechanistic support is still too light for the headline
- the paper mainly matters to one small audience
- the medical relevance is stronger in the discussion than in the figures
Bottom line
Journal of Biomedical Science has an impact factor of 12.1 and a five-year JIF of 12.0. The stronger signal is that the journal now combines broad biomedical scope with a real mechanistic bar and a clean citation profile.
If the paper is still too narrow, the metric will flatter the fit.
Frequently asked questions
Journal of Biomedical Science has a 2024 JCR impact factor of 12.1, with a five-year JIF of 12.0. It is Q1 and ranks 9th out of 195 journals in its primary JCR category.
Yes. It is now a serious upper-tier biomedical journal. The stronger signal is the combination of a double-digit JIF, a Q1 position, and a broad molecular-biomedical readership.
Because it combines broad biomedical scope with a real mechanistic bar. Authors often underestimate the level because the journal is open access and operationally straightforward, but the citation profile says the readership takes it seriously.
No. The official scope stresses molecular studies of biomedical problems and molecular mechanisms. Narrow technical papers and descriptive studies still miss if they do not travel beyond one specialty lane.
The common misses are technically sound but too-local papers, studies with weak mechanistic closure, and manuscripts that state medical relevance more strongly than the actual figures support.
Sources
Reference library
Use the core publishing datasets alongside this guide
This article answers one part of the publishing decision. The reference library covers the recurring questions that usually come next: whether the package is ready, what drives desk rejection, how journals compare, and what the submission requirements look like across journals.
Checklist system / operational asset
Elite Submission Checklist
A flagship pre-submission checklist that turns journal-fit, desk-reject, and package-quality lessons into one operational final-pass audit.
Flagship report / decision support
Desk Rejection Report
A canonical desk-rejection report that organizes the most common editorial failure modes, what they look like, and how to prevent them.
Dataset / reference hub
Journal Intelligence Dataset
A canonical journal dataset that combines selectivity posture, review timing, submission requirements, and Manusights fit signals in one citeable reference asset.
Dataset / reference guide
Peer Review Timelines by Journal
Reference-grade journal timeline data that authors, labs, and writing centers can cite when discussing realistic review timing.
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