Smart Medicine

About Smart Medicine

Smart Medicine: Journal Profile

Smart Medicine is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal published by Wiley-VCH in partnership with the Wenzhou Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (WIUCAS). Its print ISSN is 2751-1863 and its online ISSN is 2751-1871 — the pair recorded on this JournalsWorld profile. Launched in 2022, with its first issue published online at the end of December 2022, the journal publishes original research articles, rapid communications, reviews and commentaries across the borderland where medicine meets materials science, engineering and technology. Wiley describes it as a journal for high-quality work encompassing all aspects of biological mechanisms in human disease, including immunology, metabolism, neuroscience, clinical diagnostics and medication, drug development, biomaterials and imaging. Its name is a mission statement: medicine made smarter by engineered materials, devices, microfluidics and data-driven methods, carried from the laboratory bench to the bedside and back again.

The journal arrived with unusually senior backing. Its founding editors-in-chief are Yihai Cao of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and David A. Weitz of Harvard University in the United States, and its launch issue carried twenty-two papers — thirteen reviews, three mini-reviews and six research articles — from authors in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Finland, all open access. Within its first few years the journal's homepage was displaying a Journal Impact Factor of 11.6, a figure that, if it holds, places a very young interdisciplinary title in striking territory; readers should treat that as the publisher-displayed metric it is, checked live on the Wiley homepage, rather than as a number carried by third-party listing sites.

At a Glance

• Title: Smart Medicine
• ISSN: 2751-1863 (print); 2751-1871 (online)
• Publisher: Wiley-VCH (Germany), in partnership with Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Editors-in-Chief: Yihai Cao; David A. Weitz
• Executive Editors (Wiley homepage): Luoran Shang; Hongbo Zhang
• Frequency: Bimonthly (ISSN Portal record)
• Founded: 2022; first issue online 30 December 2022
• Access model: Open access, CC BY; authors retain unrestricted copyright
• Metrics displayed by Wiley: Journal Impact Factor 11.6; acceptance rate 42%; submission to first decision 7 days
• Charges: Wiley homepage states article publication charges are currently waived; DOAJ lists a standard APC (see charges section)
• Indexing and archiving confirmed: DOAJ listing; digital archiving in CLOCKSS, Portico and PubMed Central

Aims and Scope

Smart Medicine publishes across materials, biology, medicine, engineering and technology, and explicitly promotes communication in both directions between bench and bedside: fundamental discoveries tested toward clinical use, and clinical problems carried back into the laboratory. The partner institute, WIUCAS, describes the journal in similar terms as an interdisciplinary title spanning basic and clinical medicine, life science, materials science, translational medicine and pharmacy, aimed at advancing disease diagnosis and treatment, optimising medical devices and developing new technologies. The subject strands below are the ones the journal and its listings name.

Biomaterials and tissue engineering

This is the journal's centre of gravity. Hydrogels and microfibres, functional biomaterials for conditions such as osteoarthritis, bioceramics for wound healing, engineered nerve conduits, stem-cell and organoid work, and microenvironment-responsive delivery systems all recur in its pages. The emphasis is on materials designed to do something in the body — respond, release, conduct, regenerate — rather than to sit inertly within it.

Microfluidics, devices and diagnostics

Microfluidic technologies are a signature method: cell deformability cytometry, organ-on-a-chip platforms such as an osteosarcoma-on-a-chip for high-throughput combination-drug screening, and microfluidic approaches to reproductive medicine and urological cancer. Diagnostics, imaging and medical devices sit alongside, reflecting the journal's interest in technologies that change what clinicians can measure and therefore what they can treat.

Disease mechanisms and drug development

The journal also publishes work on the biological mechanisms of human disease — immunology, metabolism and neuroscience among the named areas — and on drug development and delivery, including nanoparticle co-delivery platforms for cancer therapy and studies of how metabolic pathways shape tumour–immune behaviour. The pairing is deliberate: engineered systems need biological questions worth answering, and biological insight increasingly needs engineered systems to become therapy.

Energy, sensing and personalised healthcare

Further strands visible from the launch issue onward include thermoelectric energy harvesting for personalised healthcare, ultrasound-responsive delivery systems, and sensing technologies — the device layer of a medicine that monitors and treats continuously rather than episodically.

History and Development

Smart Medicine was founded as a collaboration between WIUCAS and Wiley, announced with its first papers online on 30 December 2022. The founding editorial, titled around the idea that multidisciplinary endeavours make future medicine smart, set the programme. The launch was international by design: an editorial board drawn from senior scholars at leading institutions in more than ten countries, and a first issue whose authors came from five countries across three continents. Publication has been regular since — Wiley's issue listing shows four volumes by 2025, appearing in a quarterly-in-practice rhythm of March, June, September and December issues within the bimonthly frequency recorded by the ISSN Portal — and the journal's most-cited early papers, on infection-responsive microspheres, biomedical engineering for reproductive medicine, microfluidic cell deformability and functional biomaterials for osteoarthritis, map precisely onto its declared scope. The rapid appearance of a double-digit publisher-displayed impact factor suggests the strategy of recruiting established research groups into a new open access venue has worked as intended.

Publisher and Partner Institute

The publisher of record is Wiley-VCH in Weinheim, Germany, the Wiley imprint that also publishes the Advanced and Small journal families, whose editorial style — graphical abstracts, prominent article highlights, special issues — Smart Medicine visibly shares. The publishing partner is the Wenzhou Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, which Wiley credits with bridging fundamental innovation and industrialisation. That pairing explains the journal's character: a German-based international publisher's platform and standards, joined to a Chinese research institute's networks in biomaterials and translational medicine, under editors based in Sweden and the United States.

Editorial Structure

Wiley's homepage names Yihai Cao and David A. Weitz as Editors-in-Chief and Luoran Shang and Hongbo Zhang as Executive Editors. Cao, based at the Karolinska Institute, is known for work on angiogenesis and tumour biology; Weitz, at Harvard, is a leading figure in soft matter physics and microfluidics — a pairing that embodies the journal's biology-meets-engineering identity. Chinese reporting of the launch also named Wenguo Cui and Yuanjin Zhao among the executive editorial leadership at founding, and an international editorial board of more than twenty senior scholars; authors should consult the current board page on Wiley Online Library for the up-to-date roster, since executive roles in fast-growing journals evolve. What is consistent is the model: active research leaders, not only professional editors, front the journal.

Article Types and Special Issues

The journal publishes original research articles, rapid communications, reviews, mini-reviews and commentaries, with editorials from the editorial team. Graphical abstracts are a standard feature of its research and review articles, matching Wiley's practice in its materials and life-science portfolio. Special issues are used actively: Wiley notes that special issues focus on topics such as public-health incidents and carry a fast-track review service, making the journal responsive to emerging areas. Free-format submission is offered, reducing the initial formatting burden on authors whose manuscripts may later need restructuring.

Peer Review and Submission

Submissions are made through Wiley's online system for the journal. DOAJ records the review model as anonymous peer review and confirms that the journal checks submissions for plagiarism. Wiley's displayed journal metrics are eye-catching: a 42% acceptance rate and a submission-to-first-decision time of 7 days, with DOAJ recording an average of about 4 weeks from submission to publication — figures that describe a deliberately fast editorial operation for a competitive title. Authors should read the live author guidelines for current requirements on article categories, data and ethics statements; as with any fast journal, the practical way to use the speed is to submit a complete, well-documented manuscript — methods, characterisation data for materials, and biological validation where claimed — since rapid first decisions reward readiness.

Open Access, Charges and Licensing

Smart Medicine is fully open access under a CC BY licence, and DOAJ records that authors retain unrestricted copyright and publishing rights. On charges, two official statements need to be read together. Wiley's journal homepage states that article publication charges are currently waived — there is no cost to make work open access — while DOAJ lists a standard APC for the journal of up to USD 3,630 / GBP 2,670 / EUR 3,150, with a waiver policy. The sensible interpretation is that a list APC exists on the journal's rate card while a promotional waiver currently applies; authors must confirm the charge position for their own manuscript on the journal's open access page at submission and acceptance, because waivers are time-limited by nature and the listed charge is substantial. Digital archiving is confirmed in CLOCKSS, Portico and PubMed Central, and DOAJ lists the journal, confirming its open access credentials have passed DOAJ's review.

Metrics and Standing

The metrics Wiley displays for the journal are: Journal Impact Factor 11.6, acceptance rate 42%, and 7 days from submission to first decision. This profile reports those as publisher-displayed homepage figures without a year attribution, because the homepage display consulted did not attach one; authors citing the impact factor in evaluations should take the current figure and its year from Wiley or Journal Citation Reports directly. No SCImago quartile is asserted here, since it could not be verified from an official listing consulted for this profile. Even with those cautions, the picture is clear: this is a young journal that has achieved visibility far faster than most new titles, driven by senior editorship, an institute partnership, open access and an aggressively interdisciplinary scope.

Who Should Publish Here — and Who Should Read It

Smart Medicine fits researchers whose work crosses the materials–medicine boundary: biomaterials and tissue-engineering groups, microfluidics and organ-on-chip developers, drug-delivery scientists, biomedical engineers, and translational teams in diagnostics and imaging, as well as disease-mechanism researchers whose findings point toward technology. It is a less natural home for purely clinical studies with no technological or mechanistic dimension, or for materials work with no plausible medical application — the journal's identity is the conjunction, not either side alone. Readers are the same interdisciplinary community, plus clinicians and industry researchers tracking which engineered approaches are approaching the clinic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Smart Medicine a Wiley journal? Yes — published by Wiley-VCH in partnership with the Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, with e-ISSN 2751-1871.

Does it charge an APC? Wiley's homepage currently states APCs are waived; DOAJ lists a standard APC of up to USD 3,630 with a waiver policy. Confirm the position at submission.

When did it start? In 2022; the first issue's papers were published online on 30 December 2022.

Who edits it? Editors-in-Chief Yihai Cao (Karolinska Institute) and David A. Weitz (Harvard University), with Luoran Shang and Hongbo Zhang as Executive Editors per Wiley's homepage.

Inside the Published Research

The journal's early content shows its formula working across very different problem types. In wound care, ultrasound-responsive core–shell microcapsules have been reported that load an oxygen-rich perfluorocarbon core and a curcumin-bearing hydrogel shell, using ultrasound both to trigger oxygen release and to activate a sonodynamic effect, with anti-inflammatory action, against infected wounds — a single paper combining materials design, traditional medicine chemistry and therapy. In oncology, a permeable hydrogel-encapsulated osteosarcoma-on-a-chip has been used for high-throughput screening of drug combinations, integrating microfluidic electrospray fabrication and gradient generation to produce uniform tumour spheroids for chemotherapy evaluation; other work has traced how polyamine metabolism shapes the immune phenotype of tumour-associated macrophages in thyroid carcinoma. In neural repair, conductive nerve conduits with oriented structures made by ice-templating — combining hydrogels, aligned architecture and growth factors — improved motor recovery in rat sciatic-nerve defect models. In musculoskeletal medicine, reviews have synthesised how low-intensity pulsed ultrasound may slow osteoarthritis and how functional biomaterials can be carried from research toward application. None of these papers belongs to a single discipline; each is exactly the bench-to-bedside conjunction the journal was founded to publish, and together they explain both its citation performance and its appeal to groups whose work is routinely told it is too engineering for medical journals and too medical for engineering ones.

How Smart Medicine Compares

Interdisciplinary medical-technology publishing is crowded — broad medical journals, biomaterials titles, biomedical-engineering journals and general-science megajournals all compete for the same manuscripts. Smart Medicine's differentiation is threefold. Its editorship pairs a tumour biologist of international standing with one of the founders of modern microfluidics, signalling that both halves of its scope are judged by leaders in them. Its institute partnership gives it a direct pipeline into one of the world's most productive biomaterials research ecosystems, while Wiley-VCH gives it the production values — graphical abstracts, special issues, fast first decisions — of the Advanced portfolio it resembles in style. And its current APC waiver removes, for the moment, the cost barrier that open access usually imposes, which matters in a field where many strong groups are in institutions with limited publication funds. Against that, authors should weigh the considerations that apply to any young journal: its metric history is short, its displayed metrics should be re-verified at the moment of decision, and its scope fit test — is this work genuinely at the medicine–technology interface? — is applied by editors who publish that interface themselves. A manuscript that clears that test will find few venues that present it better.

What Submission Readiness Looks Like

Because the journal advertises a 7-day submission-to-first-decision figure, manuscripts are likely triaged quickly for scope and completeness, and the papers that benefit are those that arrive in the form the journal publishes: a clear statement of the medical problem, the engineered or biological solution, and the evidence connecting them; characterisation data complete enough for a materials reviewer to reproduce the system; biological experiments designed with the controls a clinician reader will look for; and a graphical abstract that carries the paper's message, in the house style Wiley's portfolio uses. Free-format initial submission lowers the mechanical burden, but it does not lower the scientific one — if anything, a fast journal shifts effort from formatting to substance. Authors should also plan the open access side early: confirm the current APC waiver position, choose the CC BY licence with the knowledge that they retain copyright, and prepare data and supplementary material for the PMC-visible record. Groups new to the journal can gauge fit efficiently by reading the most-cited papers in their strand — the journal helpfully surfaces them on its homepage — and by checking whether recent issues carry work from laboratories like their own. Where the fit is real, the combination on offer is uncommon: senior editorship, a publisher-displayed double-digit impact factor, rapid decisions, and, while the waiver lasts, open access without a charge.

A final practical note concerns discoverability after publication. Open access articles in this journal are deposited in PubMed Central as well as preserved in CLOCKSS and Portico, and Wiley's platform exposes graphical abstracts and citation data on each article page, with the journal's most-cited papers surfaced on its homepage. For an interdisciplinary paper — the kind that can vanish between the audiences of two parent disciplines — that combination of a PMC record, a visual abstract and a homepage that actively promotes strong content materially improves the chance that the second audience, the one the authors did not primarily write for, actually finds the work.

Profile Summary

Smart Medicine is a 2022-vintage, Wiley-VCH open access journal, built with the Wenzhou Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and edited by internationally prominent scientists, that publishes fast, graphically presented research where biomaterials, microfluidics, devices and disease biology meet. With a publisher-displayed impact factor of 11.6, a stated 7-day first decision, CC BY licensing with author copyright retention, DOAJ listing and CLOCKSS, Portico and PubMed Central archiving, it is one of the most visible young venues in translational, technology-driven medicine — provided authors check the current APC waiver position before they submit.