BiomedicalPublications

BMJ Open

BMJ·United Kingdom·ISSN 2044-6055

Open accessIn DOAJFee waivers availableMedicine

Cost to publish

$1,839

Open-access article processing charge, list price.

Time to publication

32 wks

Slower than average; plan your timeline accordingly.

h-index

244

OpenAlex citation statistic. Not a Journal Impact Factor.

2-year mean citedness

2.4

Average citations to articles from the previous two years.

What it costs to publish here

Publishing an open-access article in BMJ Open is listed at $1,839. The publisher also lists 1,500 GBP. The journal reports that fee waivers are available — worth pursuing if you are funding this yourself or working from a lower-income country.

The journal's own fee page →

Peer review and licensing

Review modelOpen peer review (policy)
LicenceCC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND
Author keeps copyrightNo
Plagiarism screeningYes
Editorial boardPublished →
LanguagesEN

Verification checks

8 of 8 confirmed

These are facts we could verify in public records, not a verdict. A journal missing a check is not necessarily disreputable — many long-established subscription journals sit outside the open-access registries entirely. Use them as questions to ask, and confirm anything that matters directly with the journal before you submit.

  • Listed in the Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ applies a documented set of inclusion criteria.
  • Included in OpenAlex's curated core setOpenAlex flags well-established venues that appear across major indexes.
  • Peer review model publicly declaredOpen peer review
  • Publication charges stated up frontA journal that will not tell you the fee before submission is worth a second look.
  • Screens submissions for plagiarismReported to DOAJ by the journal.
  • Participates in a digital preservation schemeArchiving means the record survives if the publisher does not.
  • Assigns persistent identifiers (DOIs)Standard practice; its absence is unusual.
  • Still actively publishingMost recent indexed article: 2026.

Scope

The subjects BMJ Open publishes most, derived from the topics assigned to its indexed articles.

Global Maternal and Child HealthHealth Policy Implementation ScienceChronic Disease Management StrategiesCOVID-19 and Mental HealthDiabetes Management and EducationCancer survivorship and careDiabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and LipoproteinsSepsis Diagnosis and TreatmentPrimary Care and Health OutcomesHIV/AIDS Research and Interventions

Publication record

Indexed articles45,250
Total citations931,416
i10-index21,422
Most recent indexed article2026
Open access since2011
All ISSNs2044-6055

Counts reflect what OpenAlex has indexed and will differ from the publisher's own figures. We do not show a founding year: OpenAlex's first-publication dates are distorted by mis-dated records — it puts PLoS ONE in 1806 — and we would rather omit a number than print one we cannot stand behind.