Fastest-accepting psychiatry journals 2026

38 psychiatry journals ranked by the median number of days from submission to acceptance, measured from the dates publishers deposit in PubMed for articles published 2024–2025. The interval includes peer review and revisions.

Journals: 38
Typical median: 124 d
Under 60 days: 1
Over 180 days: 4

Read this before using the ranking

Accepted papers only. Rejected manuscripts never receive an acceptance date, so these figures say nothing about desk-rejection speed, rejection rates or your chance of acceptance.
Not the time to a first decision. The interval runs from the “received” date to the “accepted” date the publisher deposits in PubMed. It includes editorial handling, peer review, every round of revision and the time authors spent revising.
Journals record dates differently. Some reset the received date when a revised manuscript arrives, and manuscripts transferred from another journal may keep or lose their earlier dates. Short medians are therefore not always comparable with long ones.
Past timelines are not a promise. Each figure comes from up to 100 recent articles published 2024–2025. Article types, special issues, editors and workload all change, and your paper may take much longer or much less time.
Fast is not the same as good. Check the journal’s scope, indexing, peer-review policy and editorial board before submitting. An unusually quick acceptance can be a warning sign of light peer review.

Journal Metrics is independent and is not affiliated with any journal or publisher listed. The figures are for information only, may contain errors and change as PubMed records are updated. Confirm current timelines on the journal’s own website. See how to spot predatory journals.

Psychiatry journals by median days from submission to acceptance

Psychiatry journals ranked by median days from submission to acceptance in PubMed
Rank	Journal	Median days	Middle half	Articles	Quartile	2026 score
1	JOURNAL OF HEADACHE AND PAIN	58	35–78	100	Q1	7.2
2	AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY	68	51–112	99	Q3	1.2
3	EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY	73	25–107	99	Q3	1.3
3	Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience	73	42–108	99	Q2	1.8
5	SEIZURE-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPILEPSY	78	51–112	100	Q1	2.4
6	NEUROEPIDEMIOLOGY	83	58–122	99	Q2	2.5
7	EPILEPSY & BEHAVIOR	84	60–104	99	Q1	2.6
7	JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY	84	53–127	100	Q2	1.7
7	Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports	84	61–133	100	Q3	0.8
10	Noropsikiyatri Arsivi-Archives of Neuropsychiatry	86	50–146	100	Q4	0.3
11	Alpha Psychiatry	89	72–112	100	Q1	2.7
12	Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry	106	81–149	98	Q2	0.9
13	JOURNAL OF PSYCHOSOMATIC RESEARCH	111	81–159	100	Q2	1.8
14	International Journal of Bipolar Disorders	112	84–158	79	Q1	4.0
15	ARCHIVES OF CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY	113	90–161	98	Q4	0.7
16	ENCEPHALE-REVUE DE PSYCHIATRIE CLINIQUE BIOLOGIQUE ET THERAPEUTIQUE	116	76–192	100	Q3	1.2
17	GENERAL HOSPITAL PSYCHIATRY	120	77–165	100	Q1	2.6
18	Neuroscience Applied	121	92–194	90	Q4	0.2
19	ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA	124	88–156	100	Q1	3.6
19	PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES	124	87–161	95	Q2	2.4
19	Schizophrenia Research	124	95–161	100	Q1	2.9
22	HEADACHE	127	88–167	100	Q1	3.2
23	Spanish Journal of Psychiatry and Mental Health	128	83–180	99	Q3	1.3
24	BioPsychoSocial Medicine	132	98–159	48	Q2	1.9
24	HUMAN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL	132	78–180	49	Q3	1.0
26	JOURNAL OF ECT	133	92–169	52	Q3	1.1
27	Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry	139	104–188	99	Q4	0.6
28	Dusunen Adam-Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences	145	94–199	39	Q4	0.5
28	PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH	145	104–208	100	Q1	4.4
28	EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE	145	103–221	100	Q1	3.0
31	Annals of General Psychiatry	147	115–208	100	Q1	3.5
32	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY	150	114–228	100	Q1	2.8
33	PSYCHOPATHOLOGY	162	114–254	97	Q1	2.3
34	Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology	166	140–226	61	Q2	2.4
35	NEUROPSYCHOBIOLOGY	189	140–274	54	Q1	2.8
36	JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH	195	134–238	100	Q1	3.3
37	Brain Impairment	228	166–278	73	Q2	1.7
38	BIPOLAR DISORDERS	271	96–383	57	Q3	1.5

Median days: half of the journal’s accepted articles took less time from submission to acceptance and half took more. Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile. Articles: how many recent PubMed articles had both dates. Journals with the same rounded median share a rank.

Median under 30 days. Very short intervals usually reflect how a journal records its dates (for example a new received date after revision) or invited and fast-track article types such as reviews and editorials, not unusually quick peer review. Check the journal’s peer-review policy before reading anything into them.

Questions about psychiatry journal acceptance times

Which psychiatry journals accept papers fastest?

Among the 38 psychiatry journals with enough PubMed dates, the shortest median times from submission to acceptance (leaving out medians under 30 days, which usually reflect how dates are recorded) are JOURNAL OF HEADACHE AND PAIN (58 days), AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY (68 days), EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY (73 days), Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience (73 days), SEIZURE-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPILEPSY (78 days). These medians include peer review and revisions, and cover accepted papers only.

How long does a psychiatry journal take to accept a paper?

The typical psychiatry journal on this page has a median of 124 days from submission to acceptance. 1 of 38 journals have a median under 60 days and 4 take more than 180 days.

Is this the peer review time?

No. PubMed records when a manuscript was received and when it was accepted, not the individual review stages. The interval includes editorial handling, peer review, revisions and the time authors spent revising, so it is longer than the time to a first decision. For first-decision times, check the journal’s own website.

Does a fast journal mean my paper is more likely to be accepted?

No. Only accepted papers have an acceptance date, so this ranking says nothing about acceptance rates or how quickly a journal rejects papers. A very fast acceptance can also be a sign of light peer review. Check the journal’s scope, indexing and peer-review policy before submitting.

About this data

Source: the received and accepted dates publishers deposit in PubMed, read through the public NCBI E-utilities for articles published 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31, up to 100 recent articles per journal. Data checked 2026-11-03.
A journal is ranked only when at least 20 articles have both dates and at least half of the articles checked have them. Journals that do not deposit dates in PubMed, including most journals outside the life sciences, cannot be ranked here.
The ranking uses each journal’s median: half of its accepted articles took less time and half took more. The middle-half range shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
Fields come from the OpenAlex classification of each journal’s research topics. A journal joins a field when at least two of its four main topics are in it, so a journal can appear in more than one field and some classifications are imperfect.
Quartile and score are the journal’s best OpenAlex subfield quartile and its Journal Metrics Score, shown for context; they play no part in the order.

The full journal-level dataset is in the journal acceptance times study (with a CSV download). Spot an error or a journal whose dates look wrong? Tell us.

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