What is Acta Histochemica et Cytochemica (AHC)?

Updated

Acta Histochemica et Cytochemica (AHC) is an English-language academic journal in histochemistry and cytochemistry, published by the Japan Society of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry (JSHC). Its website, ahc-journal.jp, is the journal's official online presence: it presents the journal's articles, author instructions, submission information, and editorial board. If you are looking for where AHC articles are hosted, how to submit, or what it costs to publish, the site covers all three.

What the journal covers

AHC publishes research in histochemistry and cytochemistry — the study of chemical composition and activity in cells and tissues. The site's article listings show the range of topics in practice, including:

  • Cancer pathology and prognostic markers (for example, HMGB1, TLR2, and TLR4 in breast cancer)
  • Tumor-associated macrophages in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma
  • Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
  • Developmental biology, such as whole-embryo culture systems
  • Gene expression and epigenetic regulation, such as RANK promoter methylation

The journal reports an impact factor of 1.9 (2025) and a 5-year impact factor of 2.3. Its online ISSN is 1347-5800.

Who runs it and where articles live

AHC is published by JSHC. The journal's article content is hosted on J-STAGE, Japan's public platform for academic journals, which is why the "Latest Articles" and "Best Articles" sections on ahc-journal.jp are labeled "Powered by J-STAGE." Each listed article carries a DOI under the prefix 10.1267/ahc, which is the stable identifier you can use to locate or cite it.

The site also states that it is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18HP2003.

What you can do on the site

Purpose Where to go on the site
Read published articles Browse Articles; Latest Articles; Best Articles
Prepare a submission Instructions to Authors
Submit a manuscript Submission
Check who edits the journal Editorial Board
Contact the journal Contact (email to Editorial Office)

The site also links to its Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, Open Access Policy, and Digital Archiving and Repository Policy — worth reading before submitting if you need to confirm licensing or archiving terms.

Publication costs

According to the Important Notice on the site, from the submission date of June 1, 2024, authors are required to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to publish in AHC:

  • Standard rate: JPY 100,000
  • JSHC members: JPY 50,000

The APC is charged in addition to conventional page charges of JPY 5,000 per page. The site directs readers to the Instructions to Authors for further detail, so confirm the current figures there before budgeting a submission.

When this journal is relevant to you

AHC is a reasonable target if your work sits in histochemistry, cytochemistry, or related cell and tissue biology, and you want an English-language journal with open-access policies and a J-STAGE-hosted archive. It is also useful as a reading source if you follow pathology or cancer-marker research from Japanese groups. If your topic falls outside histochemistry and cytochemistry, or if the APC and page charges do not fit your funding, the Instructions to Authors and the article archive are the two pages to check first before deciding.