Publication Guide
Wolters Kluwer Health is one of the world's leading clinical and medical publishers. Its Lippincott imprint - descended from the Philadelphia house J.B. Lippincott, founded in 1792 - publishes 300+ peer-reviewed journals in medicine, nursing, and allied health, and nearly 500 titles once the India-based Medknow open-access family is included. The defining feature of the portfolio is society publishing: Wolters Kluwer publishes on behalf of more than 450 professional societies, including the American Heart Association (Circulation, Stroke, Hypertension), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Journal of Clinical Oncology), the American Academy of Neurology (Neurology), the International Anesthesia Research Society (Anesthesia & Analgesia), and the Society of Critical Care Medicine (Critical Care Medicine).
The parent company, Wolters Kluwer NV, is a Dutch information-services group founded in 1836 and listed on Euronext Amsterdam. The Health division is headquartered in Philadelphia and also operates Ovid (the research platform used by medical libraries) and UpToDate (the clinical decision-support tool). In March 2026, Wolters Kluwer expanded its long-running American Heart Association partnership to 12 journals. This guide covers how to pick a journal, what open access costs, how peer review works, and how to submit.
Which Wolters Kluwer journal fits your paper?
Because most Lippincott titles are society journals, the right venue usually follows your clinical specialty and your open-access budget. Use the table below as a starting map.
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Have high-impact cardiovascular research | AHA journals - Circulation, Stroke, Hypertension, and the Circulation subspecialty family. Hybrid OA available; very selective. |
| Have practice-changing oncology results | Journal of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) - one of the highest-impact clinical oncology venues; published by Wolters Kluwer on behalf of ASCO. |
| Have clinical neurology research | Neurology (AAN) and its subspecialty siblings - the flagship of clinical neurology. |
| Work in anesthesiology, surgery, or critical care | Anesthesia & Analgesia, Annals of Surgery, Critical Care Medicine - long-established society flagships with hybrid OA options. |
| Need an affordable fully-OA venue | Fully-OA Lippincott titles (APCs roughly 2,250) or Medknow society journals, many of which charge low or no APCs. |
| Publish nursing or allied-health research | Lippincott nursing portfolio - the largest nursing journal program in the world, including AJN, Nursing Research, and specialty titles. |
What Wolters Kluwer Health actually publishes
- Lippincott journals - 300+ peer-reviewed titles across clinical medicine, surgery, nursing, and allied health; more than 260 are indexed in the Journal Citation Reports. Most are owned by or published for professional societies.
- Medknow - the Mumbai-based open-access publisher acquired in 2011; publishes low-cost and no-fee OA society journals across India, the Middle East, and Asia.
- Ovid - the aggregation and discovery platform through which libraries license Lippincott collections (e.g., the LWW Total Access Collection).
- UpToDate and clinical solutions - point-of-care reference content, distinct from the research-journal program.
Open access and APCs
Wolters Kluwer Health offers Gold, Hybrid, and Green routes, with per-journal pricing set together with the owning society - so always check the journal's own APC page before budgeting.
| Route | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fully-OA Lippincott journals | ~2,250 per article | Common price point around $1,500; some titles price reviews and case reports lower |
| Hybrid OA on society flagships | ~5,000+ | Circulation's OA fee is roughly 5,000 depending on article type and license; society-member discounts often apply |
| Medknow titles | Low or no APC | Many society-funded journals charge nothing |
| Green self-archiving | Free | Accepted-manuscript archiving with a per-title embargo |
Licenses offered are CC BY, CC BY-NC, and CC BY-NC-ND, varying by journal and funder requirements. Waivers follow Research4Life-style country tiers: authors from one set of eligible countries pay no APC, and authors from a second tier receive a 50% discount. Wolters Kluwer also signs Read & Publish (transformative) agreements - recent examples include Jisc in the UK and a 2026 Stanford agreement - which can cover the APC entirely for affiliated corresponding authors.
Peer review process
- Default model: single-anonymized peer review across most Lippincott and society journals; individual societies set their own variations.
- Editorial control: sits with the owning society's editorial board, not with Wolters Kluwer - expect journal-specific standards and reporting requirements (CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE for clinical work).
- Turnaround: varies widely by title; large clinical flagships commonly return first decisions in 4-12 weeks. Check the journal's own statistics page where published.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Browse the portfolio at journals.lww.com or use the owning society's author pages.
- Read the Instructions for Authors. Every Lippincott journal has title-specific requirements; clinical journals usually require AMA 11th edition or Vancouver-style referencing.
- Prepare your manuscript. SciSpace hosts formatted templates for Lippincott journals - see the Lippincott formats page.
- Submit via Editorial Manager. Most Wolters Kluwer journals run on Editorial Manager; a minority of society titles use their own systems, so follow the journal's submission link.
- Complete disclosures. Expect ICMJE conflict-of-interest forms, trial registration numbers, and ethics-approval statements for clinical studies.
Ethics and integrity
Wolters Kluwer Health is a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM. Its journals follow ICMJE recommendations and COPE guidance on corrections and retractions, and clinical titles enforce trial-registration and reporting-guideline compliance. Data-sharing statements are required by many society flagships, with policies set per journal.
