The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) reports selected indicators of editorial activity, publication output, readership, geographic reach, and citation performance.
Metrics must be interpreted according to their reporting period, data source, and methodology. Submission statistics describe editorial activity, website statistics describe recorded use of the Journal platform, and citation indicators reflect citations identified by the relevant scholarly service.
| 2025 Snapshot | Editorial Timelines | Citation Indicators |
The IJMS monitors indicators related to:
| Metric group | Principal source | Reporting basis |
|---|---|---|
| Submissions and decisions | Journal submission and editorial records | Manuscripts received or decided during the specified reporting period |
| Editorial timelines | Dates recorded in the submission platform | Elapsed time between defined editorial events |
| Publication output | Published issues, articles, and supplements | Content published during the specified period |
| Website readership | Website analytics | Recorded visits and geographic information available through the analytics service |
| Citation indicators | Google Scholar and other scholarly services | Cumulative citations identified by the relevant database at the time measured |
| Article-level metrics | Publishing-platform usage data and participating attention services | Views, downloads, citations, and other recorded forms of engagement |
The figures describe aggregate Journal performance. They do not guarantee a particular editorial outcome, review duration, acceptance decision, citation count, or publication date for an individual manuscript.
The following indicators summarize principal Journal activity and reach during 2025.
| Indicator | 2025 result | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Submissions received | 839 | Editorial activity |
| Acceptance rate | 22% | Editorial decisions |
| Average time to first decision | 5 days | Editorial timelines |
| Average time to acceptance | 72 days | Editorial timelines |
| Average time to decline | 272 days | Editorial timelines |
| Countries represented in published articles | More than 40 | Author representation |
| Annual website visits | Approximately 400,000 | Readership |
| Countries and territories reached | More than 190 | Geographic reach |
| Combined social-media audience | More than 20,000 | Community reach |
| Google Scholar h-index | 23 | Citation performance |
Reporting period: January 1–December 31, 2025, except citation indicators, which represent cumulative performance at the time of measurement.
Approximate and “more than” values are presented where the underlying systems or reporting methods do not support a stable exact total.
| Metric | 2025 | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Submissions received | 839 | New manuscript submissions received during the reporting year. |
| Acceptance rate | 22% | Proportion of manuscripts with a recorded final editorial decision that were accepted for publication. |
| Decline rate | 78% | Proportion of manuscripts with a recorded final editorial decision that were declined. |
The acceptance rate is based on manuscripts for which a final editorial decision was recorded during the reporting period.
It should not be calculated by dividing the number of articles published during the year by the number of new submissions received during that same year. A manuscript may be submitted in one reporting period and receive its final decision or publication date in another.
Manuscripts may be declined:
Detailed decision categories and editorial procedures are described on the Editorial and Peer-Review Process page.
Editorial timelines vary according to article type, manuscript quality, reviewer availability, revision complexity, author response time, and the nature of any methodological, ethical, statistical, or authorship questions identified during assessment.
| Editorial interval | 2025 result | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Submission to first editorial decision | 5 days | Average time from submission to the first recorded editorial decision or request for correction or revision. |
| Submission to acceptance | 72 days | Average time from initial submission to final acceptance for manuscripts accepted during the reporting period. |
| Submission to decline | 272 days | Average time from initial submission to the final decline decision for manuscripts declined during the reporting period. |
| Typical submission-to-publication interval | 3–6 months | General interval for manuscripts completing assessment, peer review, revision, acceptance, and publication. |
| Acceptance to initial online publication | Forthcoming publication | Accepted articles may be published in the Forthcoming section before assignment to a regular issue. |
A first decision may include:
The first decision does not necessarily mean that the manuscript has completed external peer review or received a final publication decision.
These values are descriptive averages, not guaranteed service deadlines. Individual manuscripts may require additional time because of:
| Publication frequency | Quarterly |
|---|---|
| Regular publication months | March, June, September, and December |
| Publication format | Online |
| Early publication | Accepted articles may be published in the Forthcoming section before assignment to a regular issue. |
| Supplementary issues | The Journal may publish approved conference abstracts, proceedings, or other supplementary content separately from regular issues. |
| Regular content | Includes the article categories and editorial content approved by the Journal. |
This section describes the publication framework rather than reproducing article-type requirements. Complete category definitions are maintained on the Article Types page.
| Current Issue | Forthcoming Articles | Journal Archives |
Use the interactive reports below to examine article engagement, website access, geographic reach, devices, traffic patterns, and other available website indicators. Report controls can be used to change dates and explore the data directly.
Website visits are not necessarily equivalent to:
Recorded geographic data may be affected by:
Countries represented in published articles are determined from author affiliations, not reader location, nationality, citizenship, or residence.
A multinational article may contribute more than one country to the annual representation total. The result therefore describes geographic breadth rather than the number of articles or authors.
Citation indicators provide one measure of the scholarly use and visibility of published articles. The IJMS monitors citation performance through Google Scholar and other scholarly services.
| Indicator | Result | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Google Scholar h-index | 23 | At least 23 IJMS publications have each received at least 23 citations recorded by Google Scholar. |
The h-index combines publication volume and citation frequency. An h-index of 23 means that at least 23 publications have each received at least 23 citations in the reporting database.
The h-index is cumulative and is influenced by:
Citation counts may differ among Google Scholar, Crossref, OpenAlex, Web of Science, Scopus, and other services because they use different:
A citation value should therefore identify both the source and the date of measurement.
Individual article pages may display indicators of use, attention, and citation activity. Depending on the article and the services available, these may include:
The Journal may display article-level information through the publishing platform and services such as PlumX Metrics.
| Indicator | What it may describe |
|---|---|
| Views | Recorded access to an article landing page or abstract. |
| Downloads | Recorded requests for a PDF, HTML full text, or another downloadable file. |
| Citations | References to the article identified by a participating citation database. |
| Online attention | Discussion or sharing through social media, news, blogs, reference managers, or other tracked platforms. |
Article-level metrics do not independently establish:
Metrics may also be influenced by publication date, topic, article type, public interest, media coverage, educational use, author promotion, and differences between data providers.
| Metric category | What it describes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Submission volume | Interest in submitting work to the Journal. | The scientific quality of all manuscripts received. |
| Acceptance rate | The proportion of decided manuscripts accepted during a defined period. | That a lower acceptance rate automatically means higher quality. |
| Editorial timelines | Observed processing time for manuscripts within a reporting period. | A guaranteed decision or publication date for an individual manuscript. |
| Website visits | Recorded traffic to the Journal website. | The exact number of unique human readers or the scholarly value of the accessed content. |
| Geographic reach | The distribution of recorded readers or author affiliations. | Equivalent levels of participation, readership, or engagement in each country. |
| Citation indicators | The frequency with which publications are cited in a particular database. | The complete scientific, educational, clinical, or societal value of an article. |
| Article-level attention | Views, downloads, discussion, sharing, and other forms of engagement. | Methodological quality, validity, or endorsement of the article’s conclusions. |
No single metric provides a complete assessment of a journal or article. Metrics should be interpreted together, within their methodological context, and alongside qualitative evaluation of the underlying scholarship.
Journal Information |
Editorial and Publication Information |
| Read the Current Issue | Explore the Archives | Google Scholar |
Dear IJMS Readers,
The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) is pleased to invite you to the 2026 World Conference of Medical Student Research (WCMSR), taking place live on July 11 and 12, 2026.
WCMSR 2026 brings together medical students, trainees, and early-career researchers from institutions across the...
Dear IJMS Readers,
On behalf of the International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS), we are pleased to announce the research selected for presentation at the World Conference of Medical Student Research (WCMSR), taking place on July 11–12, 2026 freely available for everyone and streemed online in our
This journal is published by Pitt Open Library Publishing.
ISSN 2076-6327 (online)
