Two journals specialising in reporting on the links between biology and mental health have reported significant increases in the number of times articles have been cited by scientists.

The journal European Neuropsychopharmacology is reporting an increased impact factor from 6.7 in 2024 to 8.1 in 2025, whereas Neuroscience Applied (which was established only in 2022) is reporting for the first time with an initial Impact Factor of 3. Both journals are owned by the ECNP (European College of Neuropsychopharmacology) and published by Elsevier.

Impact Factors measure the average number of times an article in a journal is cited by other articles; an increase in impact factor reflects an increasing interest in the articles being published by the journal.

The Editor in Chief of European Neuropsychopharmacology, Professor Eduard Vieta (University of Barcelona) explains the increase in interest in the journal.

“There are two reasons why there is increasing interest in European Neuropsychopharmacology. Firstly we have taken practical steps to refine the selection of articles. These steps include quick desk rejection of submissions with low probability of being cited, prioritization of papers with sound methodology and reasonable sample sizes, and sending those papers to qualified reviewers. So we have tightened the selection process. And then we have to look at the effect of what we are publishing. There has been an increasing interest in articles examining the biological basis of mental processes and mental disorders, within the paradigm of “precision psychiatry”, and this is where our journal excels”.

Neuroscience Applied Editor in Chief Professor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg (University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim) said,

“Neuroscience Applied is the new journal fully open access journal of the ECNP, and so this is the first time we can report an Impact factor; it takes a while for a new journal to publish enough good articles and have them cited, so we are really pleased that we have a high initial IF, higher than we had anticipated. 3 is a great result, as it implies that even before the journal has become well known, and only a year after it started to be accessible on the major publication databases, it is publishing well-cited papers. This indicates that our publication process is on track, but also means that we have entered the field when interest in applied neuroscience is on the rise; we are rising on that tide”.

The new ratings means that European Neuropsychopharmacology now ranks in the top quartile if citations in all relevant categories. It ranks 13^th out of 293 journals in Psychiatry.

Additional information
Both European Neuropsychopharmacology(ENP) and Neuroscience Applied (NA) are official journals of the ECNP. ENP is a subscription journal, NA is an open-access journal.
Links to the journal websites are available here: https://www.ecnp.eu/research/publications/

The ECNP is Europe’s leading applied neuroscience organisation. In addition to publishing the two journals discussed here, the ECNP stages an annual congress, with over 7500 attendees. The 2026 annual congress takes place in Munich, from October 10-13^th https://www.ecnp.eu/congress2026/