About the Journal

OVERVIEW
The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) is an open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal (ISSN 2076-6327) that publishes original research in all fields of medicine. The IJMS was created in 2009 to publish the scientific outcomes and experiences of medical students (including MBBS students, MD students, DO students, MSTP students, MD/MSc students, and MD/PhD students) as well as recently graduated physicians (<3 years into practice) from all over the world. The objective of the IJMS is to be the leading publication platform for early-career scientists' medical research.

OUR AUTHORS
The IJMS accepts submissions with at least one author enrolled as a medical student in any medical school globally or a recently graduated physician. For research articles, early-career scientists must be accompanied by a senior researcher who is also responsible for the research, guaranteeing the quality of the work. Medical students have been acknowledged as an important part of the research community and their contributions to science are relevant,(Brass LF, 2018; Bonilla-Velez J, 2013) creating the need for the IJMS existence to gather their scientific work.

FOCUS AND SCOPE
The IJMS publishes papers of clinical, translational, public health, and basic science research in medicine. The IJMS accepts clinical trials, survey research, reports of diagnostic tests, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and observational and analytical studies. In the Experiences section, authors can publish their medical experiences in the areas of academic, social outreach, research, and others.

We also strive towards the training of a new generation of Editors and Peer-reviewers promoting different training strategies among our Editorial Team that includes the Web of Science Academy courses and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) courses available to its members (IJMS is a member of COPE).

PEER REVIEW
The IJMS publishes Original Articles, Short Communications, Reviews, Case Reports, Interviews, Experiences, and Letters, which follow an innovative and unique two-step, double-masked peer-review process, in brief:

The first step of revisions is internal peer-revisions, carried out by two Student Editors (medical students with publications indexed in the US National Library of Medicine, NLM) under the supervision of an Associate Editor. The aim of this step is to improve the quality of articles and identify those that can proceed to external peer-reviews. The second step of revisions is the external peer-revisions carried out by external Peer-Reviewers who are researchers with publications indexed in the NLM related to the topic of the submission. Our review process guarantees and supports the quality and validity of the work published at IJMS. Reviewers are given three weeks to complete their tasks.

STATISTICS
The IJMS acceptance rate in 2025 was 22% out of 839 submissions. Published articles in 2025 came from over 40 different countries. The average time to a first decision was 5 days, 72 days for acceptance, and 272 days to decline a submission. The time between submission and final publication is three to six months. The IJMS h-index in Google Scholar is 23.

The journal's website got near 400 thousand visits only in 2025. The IJMS's reach includes a growing social media presence (more than 20 thousand followers on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn). The Journal website is visited in a year from nearly every place in the world (+190 countries). You can find more of the IJMS statistics here.

OPEN ACCESS
The IJMS provides immediate open access to its content. Our Open Access follows a “Diamond model”; the Journal is free to both readers and authors, and there are no article processing charges, submissions fees, or any other costs required of authors to submit, review, or publish articles. Any publication, dissemination, or distribution of the information included in the Journal is permitted if the source is cited (Int J Med Stud).

The IJMS is published online quarterly (March, June, September, December) by the University of Pittsburgh Library System, a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, as part of its Pitt Open Library Publishing imprint.

ETHICS, DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
The IJMS is committed to promoting ethics in publications and a culture of diversity and inclusion in its Editorial Team and practices. Further information about these values can be found in the Statement on Publishing Ethics and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement

DISCLAIMER
The IJMS and the Editorial Team are not responsible for the opinions expressed by the Authors of all materials published, nor do these represent the Official Policy or medical opinion of the Journal or the institutions with which they are affiliated unless otherwise stated.

The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) is a nonprofit organization registered in the United States and recognized as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the Journal are tax-deductible as permitted by law.

Contact

Journal Contact: ijms.eic@library.pitt.edu
Technical Support: uls-internationaljournalofmedicalstudents@groups.pitt.edu

Mailing Address:

International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS)
c/o Hillman Library, University of Pittsburgh
3960 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

Pitt Open Library Publishing:

Hillman Library
University of Pittsburgh
3960 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

Editorial Team

The IJMS's Editorial Team is formed by the Executive Committee of IJMS, the Editorial Board, and the Editors, which is formed by Associate Editors and Student Editors. The IJMS has also ancillary positions necessary to keep the Journal functioning.

The Editor in Chief of IJMS is Francisco J. Bonilla-Escobar, MD, MSc, PhD. Our Editorial Team represents 49 countries from 6 continents, and they are experts in several different medical fields. Women comprise approximately 57% of the team. Editorial Board members are senior researchers and mentors of early-career scientists around the globe. Student Editors participate in the Journal for at least a year. The generations of Editorial Teams can be seen on the IJMS Alumni site. Visit the Editorial Team for additional information on the journal's Editors and Editorial Board.

Journal Indexing

The Journal is indexed or abstracted in: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (EZB), Google Scholar, Health InterNetwork (HINARI), Journal Seek Database, Mexican Index of Latin American Biomedical Journals (IMBIOMED), Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) WorldCat, Bibliotheca Alexandrina Information for Africa, JournalGuide, The e-Journal Gateway (J Gate).

The IJMS has been highlighted by the International Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Where to Submit Your Writing: Journals Publishing Student Work, and the American Medical Association (AMA), Where to publish: Top journals for physicians in training, 2015.

The IJMS is registered in the NLM Catalog. Research funded by the NIH-US or NIHR-UK published in this Journal will be available at PubMed Central, based on Public Open Access Policies.

The journal supports and follows the principles of: Health Information For All (HIFA), EQUATOR Network, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME; Journal application submitted), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; Member) code of conduct for editors, Publons, the Coalition for Diversity in Scholarly Communication (C4DISC), the Initiative for Open Citations (i4oc.org), and the Initiative for Open Abstracts (i4oa.org).

Policies

License

Creative Commons License
New articles in this Journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Others