  We derive the quantum kinetic theory for massive fermions with collision
terms and self-energy corrections based on quantum field theory. We adopt an
effective power counting scheme with $\hbar$ expansion to obtain the
leading-order perturbative solutions of the vector and axial Wigner functions
and the corresponding kinetic equations. We observe that both the onshell
relation and the structure of Wigner functions, along with the kinetic
equations, are modified due to the presence of self-energies and their
space-time gradients. We further apply our formalism to investigate the spin
polarization phenomena in relativistic heavy ion collisions and derive the
modification to the spin polarization spectrum of massive quarks. We find that
the gradient of vector self-energy plays a similar role to the background
electromagnetic fields, which induces a more dominant contribution than the
collisional effects by a naive power counting in the gradient expansion and
weak coupling. Our findings could further modify the spin polarization of
strange quarks and spin alignment of $\phi$ mesons beyond local thermal
equilibrium.
