OBJECTIVES: Cost-of-illness (COI) studies describe the costs associated with specific diseases using various methodological approaches.  Our primary aim was to evaluate the relationship between journal impact factor and the type of COI method used.  The second aim explores how journal type and citation counts correlate with COI method. METHODS: The study design included a database of 866 published COI studies previously classified according to six COI estimation methods.  Sum_All_Medical and Sum_Diagnosis_Specific were categorized as Simple COI Methods while Matched, Regression, Other_Total, and Other_Average were categorized as Complex COI Methods.  Web of Science was used for the 2014 journal impact factor, citation counts as of December 2015, and journal type categorized based on 22 research fields.  Impact and citations were operationalized as ordered quartiles (Low, Moderate, High, Very High).  Descriptive statistics were reported by focus categories and COI methods used.  A chi-square test was used to compare the use of Simple vs. Complex COI Methods by journal focus, impact, and citations. RESULTS: Of the 866 articles included, simple and complex methods were used in 566 (65%) and 300 (35%) publications, respectively.  COI studies using more complex methods were more likely to be published in higher impact journals ( =0.009).  There was no statistically significant difference between the journal type or number of citations and methods used ( =0.098 and 0.134), but journals published in the Social Sciences and articles with higher citation counts were more likely to use complex methods. CONCLUSIONS: This descriptive study suggests that the complexity of COI methods varies across journals, with the strongest correlation related to journal impact factor.  Investigators designing COI research studies may wish to consider how the complexity of their COI method may influence the acceptance in higher impact journals.