BMC
BMC (formerly BioMed Central) is a London-based open access scientific publisher operating as a brand within Springer Nature, offering 300+ peer-reviewed journals across life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences to academic researchers, institutions, and healthcare professionals worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1998
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What BMC does
BMC (formerly BioMed Central) is an open access scientific publisher operating as a brand within the Springer Nature portfolio, headquartered in London and employing 251-500 staff. The company publishes over 300 peer-reviewed open access journals spanning life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences, including featured titles such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health (Impact Factor 4.9, 2M downloads in 2025), Cardio-Oncology (Impact Factor 3.4), and BMC Zoology (Impact Factor 2.2). BMC's technology stack centers on the Springer Nature Link digital platform, which provides global, paywall-free article access and consolidated authentication, search, and discovery for readers.
BMC generates revenue primarily through Article Processing Charges (APCs) paid by authors or their institutions and funders on a per-article basis, a usage-based pricing model common in gold open access publishing. Its go-to-market is community-led: authors are acquired through journal websites, academic networks, society partnerships (e.g., IACAPAP), and calls for papers on themed collections, while readers are reached globally through digital distribution and multi-platform social channels including LinkedIn, X, BlueSky, Facebook, and WeChat. The company serves academic researchers and scientists, academic and research institutions, and medical and healthcare professionals who need accessible venues for publishing and reading peer-reviewed research.
BMC's operating differentiators include 25 years of brand heritage in open science, rapid peer review timelines (submission to first decision in 7-12 days for featured journals), and a broad subject collection portfolio covering behavioral sciences, biological sciences, engineering, computer science, health sciences, materials science, philosophy, and society. As a wholly-owned operating division within the Springer Nature conglomerate, BMC lacks separately disclosed financials, leadership data, and standalone AI/ML capabilities, but benefits from the parent group's publishing infrastructure and distribution scale.
BMC firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- BMC
- Legal name
- BMC
- Website
- https://biomedcentral.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1998
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Short description
- BMC (formerly BioMed Central) is a London-based open access scientific publisher operating as a brand within Springer Nature, offering 300+ peer-reviewed journals across life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences to academic researchers, institutions, and healthcare professionals worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
BMC industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Academic Publishing
- NAICS
- Periodical Publishers (513120), Periodical Publishers (51312)
- SIC
- Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Academic & Scholarly Journals Publishing (Peer-Reviewed) (MPAJABAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ), Medical, Clinical & Biomedical Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAB), Life Sciences (Biology, Ecology, Agriculture) Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAC)
Keywords
Where BMC is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Markets served
BMC business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Article Processing Charges (APCs): BMC generates revenue through open access article processing charges paid by authors or their institutions/funders to make research freely available. This is a per-article fee model for publishing in BMC's open access journals.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Per-article processing charge (APC) model |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels4 records
BMC product offering
Product offeringCore offering
BMC operates an open access scholarly publishing platform within the Springer Nature portfolio, publishing over 300 peer-reviewed journals across life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences. The company generates revenue primarily through Article Processing Charges (APCs) paid by authors or their institutions/funders when manuscripts are accepted for publication. Readers worldwide access published research free of charge, with featured journals achieving submission-to-first-decision turnaround of 7-12 days and flagship titles such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health recording 2M+ annual downloads.
Product overview
BMC (formerly BioMed Central) is a portfolio of over 300 open access journals focused on life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences. The portfolio includes flagship journals such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health (Impact Factor 4.9), Cardio-Oncology, and BMC Zoology, organized by subject collections spanning Behavioral Sciences, Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Health Sciences, and more. BMC offers journal publishing services with calls for papers for themed collections, supporting researchers through open access publication with 25 years of experience leading open science.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- BMC Open Access Journals Portfolio of over 300 peer-reviewed open access journals across life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences, enabling researchers to publish and readers to access peer-reviewed research free of charge.
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health Open access journal affiliated with the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP), covering mental health research for children and adolescents.
- Cardio-Oncology The first open access journal devoted exclusively to the emerging field of cardio-oncology, addressing the intersection of cardiovascular medicine and oncology.
- BMC Zoology Open access, peer-reviewed journal welcoming research across all aspects of zoology, including comparative physiology, mechanistic and functional studies.
- BMC Research Notes Open access journal publishing research notes, providing a venue for sharing brief research findings and observations.
- BMC Medical Education Open access journal focusing on research in medical education, covering teaching methods, curriculum development, and educational innovations.
- BMC Oral Health Open access journal publishing research on oral health, dental medicine, and related public health topics.
- BMC Public Health Open access journal covering all aspects of public health research, including epidemiology, health policy, and population health studies.
- Biological Procedures Online Open access journal publishing methodological research and procedures in the biological and biomedical sciences.
- BMC Subject Collections Organized groupings of BMC journals by subject area spanning Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Biological Sciences, Biological and Physical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Education, Health Sciences, Materials Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Society.
- BMC Calls for Papers Themed collection calls for papers inviting submissions on specific research topics, with active examples such as Oral health in girls and women, Allergy immunotherapy, and Structural variation in plants.
Quantifiable outcome
- Submission to first decision in 7 days for featured journals (e.g., Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health)
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use BMC
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
BMC technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
BMC partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP)coreIACAPAP is affiliated with BMC's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health journal. This partnership provides the journal with academic society backing and community alignment with the international professional organization for child and adolescent psychiatry.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
BMC competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- PLOS (Public Library of Science): Pioneering open access publisher with a portfolio of peer-reviewed OA journals across life and medical sciences. Most directly comparable to BMC as an OA-first publisher serving the same author and reader community.
- Frontiers Media: Large open access publisher operating across multiple scientific disciplines with APC-funded journals. Directly competes with BMC for author submissions and APC revenue in life sciences and medicine.
- MDPI: Major open access publisher with hundreds of APC-funded journals covering scientific disciplines overlapping with BMC's portfolio. Competes on price and breadth of journal coverage.
- Hindawi (Wiley): Open access publisher with broad scientific journal portfolio, now part of Wiley. Directly comparable to BMC on the OA journal model, though with different post-acquisition positioning.
Broad incumbents
- Springer Nature: Parent company and broader portfolio publisher including Springer, Nature Portfolio, and Palgrave Macmillan. Comparable as the parent conglomerate within which BMC operates, spanning OA and subscription publishing.
- Elsevier: Largest scientific publisher globally, with extensive journal portfolio including hybrid OA options. Comparable as a broad incumbent in scholarly publishing competing for the same author and reader base.
- Wiley: Major scholarly publisher with hybrid and fully OA journals across scientific disciplines, plus recent acquisitions of Hindawi. Comparable broad incumbent competing for OA authors and institutional spend.
- Taylor & Francis: Large scholarly publisher with a growing OA journal portfolio. Comparable as a broad incumbent expanding into OA alongside subscription publishing.
- SAGE Publications: Scholarly publisher with journals across social sciences, life sciences, and medicine including OA titles. Comparable broad incumbent in academic journal publishing.
Emerging players
- Copernicus Publications: OA publisher focused on geosciences and related disciplines. Partially comparable as an emerging OA specialist with society affiliations and APC-funded journals.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Customer concentration
BMC social profiles
Digital presenceBMC financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
BMC leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
BMC funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
BMC M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about BMC
What does BMC do?
BMC operates an open access scholarly publishing platform within the Springer Nature portfolio, publishing over 300 peer-reviewed journals across life sciences, health sciences, medicine, and applied sciences. The company generates revenue primarily through Article Processing Charges (APCs) paid by authors or their institutions/funders when manuscripts are accepted for publication. Readers worldwide access published research free of charge, with featured journals achieving submission-to-first-decision turnaround of 7-12 days and flagship titles such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health recording 2M+ annual downloads.
Is BMC a public or private company?
BMC is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was BMC founded?
BMC was founded in 1998. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is BMC based?
BMC is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does BMC make money?
One revenue line is on record: article Processing Charges (APCs).
Who are BMC's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are PLOS (Public Library of Science), Frontiers Media, MDPI and Hindawi (Wiley). Broad incumbents are Springer Nature, Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and SAGE Publications. Copernicus Publications is listed as an emerging player.
Does BMC have an API?
No public API is recorded for BMC.
What industry is BMC in?
BMC's product category is Academic Publishing. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJABAC, Academic & Scholarly Journals Publishing (Peer-Reviewed), with a secondary code of EDAGAFAJ, Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs. Its NAICS code is 513120 and its SIC code is 2721.