Pharmacology & Therapeutics Impact Factor
Pharmacology & Therapeutics impact factor is 12.5 with a 5-year JIF of 14.0. See rank, trend, and what it means before you pitch.
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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Quick answer: Pharmacology & Therapeutics has a 2024 JCR impact factor of 12.5, a five-year JIF of 14.0, and a Q1 rank of 9/352 in its primary category. The practical read is that this is a serious top-tier pharmacology review journal. The more important commercial reality is that most authors cannot treat it like an ordinary target, because the current guide says the journal publishes invited reviews and does not accept review proposals.
Pharmacology & Therapeutics impact factor at a glance
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Impact Factor | 12.5 |
5-Year JIF | 14.0 |
JIF Without Self-Cites | 12.5 |
JCI | 1.80 |
Quartile | Q1 |
Category Rank | 9/352 |
Total Cites | 25,603 |
Citable Items | 107 |
Cited Half-Life | 6.5 years |
Scopus impact score 2024 | 12.43 |
SJR 2024 | 3.800 |
h-index | 243 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
ISSN | 0163-7258 / 1879-016X |
That rank places the journal in roughly the top 3% of its primary JCR category.
What 12.5 actually tells you
The first useful signal is obvious: this journal sits high inside pharmacology. A top-10 category rank with a double-digit JIF means the field treats it as a serious synthesis venue, not a background review outlet.
The second useful signal is durability. The five-year JIF of 14.0 is higher than the current JIF, which fits how good pharmacology reviews work. The strongest review articles in this journal stay relevant because they become organizing reference points around drug actions, targets, and therapeutic direction.
The third useful signal is cleanliness. The JIF without self-cites is 12.5, effectively identical to the headline JIF. That means the citation profile looks robust even after self-citation is removed.
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 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 | 11.04 |
2015 | 12.17 |
2016 | 11.60 |
2017 | 10.52 |
2018 | 9.62 |
2019 | 10.74 |
2020 | 11.48 |
2021 | 13.01 |
2022 | 13.56 |
2023 | 12.19 |
2024 | 12.43 |
Directionally, the open citation signal is up from 12.19 in 2023 to 12.43 in 2024. That is not a dramatic year-over-year jump, but it does show the journal holding a strong mature position after the 2021 to 2022 peak.
For authors, that usually means the journal's reputation is not just historical. It is still actively performing at the top end of review-led pharmacology publishing.
Why the number can mislead authors
The common mistake is to see a strong impact factor and assume this is just a desirable review journal to target with a good proposal.
That is not how the current author guidance frames it. The journal is a reviews journal, and the guide explicitly says it only publishes invited reviews and does not accept proposals for review articles.
That changes the practical meaning of the metric.
In this case, the number tells you:
- the journal is prestigious
- the journal's reviews are highly cited
- the journal is worth noticing if you have an invitation path
But it does not tell you that you can simply draft a review and submit it.
How Pharmacology & Therapeutics compares with nearby choices
Journal | Best fit | When it beats Pharmacology & Therapeutics | When Pharmacology & Therapeutics is stronger |
|---|---|---|---|
Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Invited, critical, target- and therapy-led pharmacology synthesis | When you already have editorial access or an invitation path | When the topic deserves a very high-end pharmacology review venue |
Broad pharmacology review journal | Conventional unsolicited reviews | When you need a real proposal-and-submission path | When invitation access exists and the topic has wider authority value |
Disease review journal | Disease-centered synthesis | When pharmacology is secondary to pathophysiology | When drug action, targets, and therapeutic direction are the real center |
Primary research journal | New empirical data | When the work is still mainly a data paper | When the value is critical synthesis rather than original results |
This is why the journal can look commercially attractive in SEO terms while still being a poor practical target for most authors.
In our pre-submission review work
In our pre-submission review work on ideas targeting Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the repeat problem is mistaking prestige for accessibility.
We see authors spend real time drafting reviews before noticing that the journal is invitation-led. Editors actually want critical, authoritative, pharmacology-centered synthesis, but most authors never get to that stage because the access path is the first gate.
The official guide is explicit enough that authors should treat that as an editorial screen, not a soft preference. Editors specifically reserve the journal for invited reviews, which changes the meaning of journal selection here before scientific fit is even debated.
What pre-submission reviews reveal about Pharmacology & Therapeutics targets
In our pre-submission review work on ideas targeting Pharmacology & Therapeutics, four failure patterns recur.
The journal is not really available to the author. This is the biggest practical miss. The author treats it like a standard review venue when the guide says otherwise.
The topic is too disease-led. A strong disease review can still misfit if drug actions, drug targets, or therapeutic logic are not central enough.
The draft is descriptive rather than critical. This journal's reputation is built on authoritative synthesis with judgment, not just literature coverage.
The real owner journal is more accessible. Many good topics belong in pharmacology review venues that actually accept proposals or unsolicited submissions.
If that sounds familiar, a review-journal access and fit check is usually more useful than another week of drafting.
How to use this number in journal selection
Use the impact factor to understand the journal's status, not its accessibility. Pharmacology & Therapeutics is a top-tier review venue, and that matters if you are benchmarking what kind of authority the field gives it.
But do not use the number to justify pitching it blindly. The more useful question is whether you have a real invitation path or editorial reason to believe the journal is practically available.
If the answer is no, the right strategic move is usually to find a journal with similar topic fit and an actual submission path.
What the number does not tell you
The impact factor does not tell you whether the journal is open to your review, whether the topic is pharmacology-centered enough, or whether your article has the critical authority the journal expects.
That is the key reason authors misread this title. The metric places the journal. It does not create access.
Submit if / Think twice if
Submit if:
- you have a real invitation path or direct editorial fit signal
- the topic is clearly pharmacology-led
- the article offers critical judgment around drug actions, targets, or therapeutic direction
- the review would still matter years later as a field reference point
Think twice if:
- you are treating the journal like a normal cold-submission review target
- the topic is mostly disease biology rather than pharmacology
- the draft mainly summarizes literature without sharp critical synthesis
- a strong unsolicited review journal would be the more realistic owner
Bottom line
Pharmacology & Therapeutics has an impact factor of 12.5 and a five-year JIF of 14.0. The stronger signal is its combination of top-tier category rank, durable citation life, and an invitation-led editorial model.
If the journal is not actually accessible to you, the metric will flatter the opportunity.
Frequently asked questions
Pharmacology & Therapeutics has a 2024 JCR impact factor of 12.5, with a five-year JIF of 14.0. It is Q1 and ranks 9th out of 352 journals in its primary JCR category.
Yes. It is one of the stronger review journals in pharmacology. The more useful signal is the combination of a double-digit JIF, top-10 category rank, and very durable citation profile.
Because the journal is not a normal cold-submission target. The current official guide says it publishes invited reviews and does not accept review proposals, so the real access question is editorial invitation, not just journal prestige.
No. The journal wants critical, authoritative, pharmacology-led synthesis around drug actions and therapeutic targets. Broad summaries or disease-biology reviews without a strong pharmacology center of gravity often misfit.
The common misses are treating it like a standard review journal, pitching disease over pharmacology, and drafting descriptive reviews instead of critical therapeutic synthesis.
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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