Overview
British Journal of Hospital Medicine (BJHM) is an international, peer-reviewed, Open Access journal dedicated to publishing manuscripts in hospital medicine that advances medical research and education. The BJHM was founded in 1966. It is a monthly medical journal with a wide range of subjects. The journal welcomes submissions from various fields of hospital medicine, including Internal Medicine, Public Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Medical Imaging, Anesthesiology, Nursing, Hospital Management and Medical Education, among others.
BJHM covers almost all specialities in hospital medicine, making it essential reading for doctors of all grades who want to ensure that their practice is evidence-based and up-to-date with all the latest clinical developments. The journal is relevant at every stage of a doctor's career.
In addition to its core research and review content, the Doctors in Training section of BJHM is intended to provide clinical information in an easily accessible format for doctors in training.
ISSN Numbers
Print ISSN: 1750-8460
Electronic ISSN: 1759-7390
Impact Factor
Publication Frequency: 12 issues per year
Current Impact Factor: 1.8 (2024)
Scopus CiteScore: 1.4
JCR Category Rank: Q2 in MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
Journal History
1966 Launched under the title Hospital Medicine, a medical journal for hospital-based healthcare professionals.
1968 Renamed British Journal of Hospital Medicine.
1990s By the late 1990s, volumes such as Vol. 60 (1999) were available online.
1997 Indexed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for the first time (“1st Electronic JCR Year: 1997,” according to the official Clarivate profile).
1998 Published under the title Hospital Medicine (London, England: 1998) as a continuation of the earlier series.
2005 Reverted to British Journal of Hospital Medicine from Vol. 66(8) 2005. Since then, the journal has been indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, which has given it international discoverability.
2011 Included in Scopus, with CiteScore metrics released from that year.
2018 Became a hybrid Open Access journal—authors could choose subscription or paid gold OA.
2024 Starting with Vol. 85(4), the journal converted to a fully Open Access model.
2026 British Journal of Hospital Medicine (from Volume 87 Issue 1), published by IMR Press, has changed its Open Access publication model from the CC BY-NC license to the CC BY license.
Benefits of Open Access Publishing
The advent of online publication has greatly improved access to scientific content on a global scale. This has led to calls from the academic community for research publications to be made freely available online and immediately upon publication, without the barrier of paid subscription to access.
In response to these calls, the British Journal of Hospital Medicine (BJHM) launched an Open Access initiative in 2024. This aims to allow more scholars to benefit from research results, promote innovation, and bring new discoveries.
There are substantial costs associated with publishing a high-quality journal such as BJHM, including administration of the editorial process, production of the published version, and development of online functionality. Under a subscription-based model, these costs are mainly covered by charging libraries and individuals for access to the journal's contents. Under BJHM's Open Access model, we aim to cover the costs of publication primarily through the use of an Article Processing Charge.
Copyright
During the period from 1999 (Volume 60) to March 2024 (Volume 85, Issue 3), the British Journal of Hospital Medicine operated under a Subscription (1999–2017) or Hybrid (2018–2024) publishing model. The full copyright (Copyright ©) for all articles published during this period, except for articles originally released under the CC BY-NC license, for which copyright remains with the original authors, has been formally transferred from the original publisher to IMR Press, which now holds the full copyright.
Effective April 2024 (Volume 85, Issue 4), the British Journal of Hospital Medicine has fully transitioned to an Open Access (OA) publishing model. Under this model, the Copyright (Copyright ©) for all articles remains with the original authors. All Open Access articles are published under the CC BY-NC license terms.
To further support Open Science, the British Journal of Hospital Medicine upgrades its licensing policy. Beginning with articles published in 2026 (Volume 87, Issue 1), the publishing license will be upgraded to the more permissive CC BY license terms, with the copyright retained by the authors.
IMR Press will insert the following note on the first page of the published text:
© Year The Author(s). Published by IMR Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Permission
Articles published during the Subscription or Hybrid publishing period (1999 to March 2024), except for articles explicitly designated as being under a CC BY-NC license, are protected by the copyright of IMR Press. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial and educational use of original figures and tables (e.g., in a review article, thesis, or educational textbook not offered for commercial sale). In all such cases, the user must provide a full and accurate reference to the original journal article and include the following copyright note: "Copyright (copyright year) IMR Press".
Effective April 2024 (Volume 85, Issue 4) through 2025 (i.e., concluding with Volume 86), all Open Access articles are published under the CC BY-NC license terms. Articles published beginning in 2026 (Volume 87, Issue 1) will adhere to the more permissive CC BY 4.0 license terms. As the copyright for these Open Access articles is held by the authors, BJHM is not authorized to grant permission for their reuse. However, depending on the intended use, permission may not be required at all. For further details regarding usage rights, please refer to the dedicated Copyright & License page.