Journal profile · FAMILY STUDIES
Adoption and Fostering
ISSN 0308-5759 · eISSN 1740-469X · SAGE
Adoption and Fostering: CAS Zone 4 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1 (journal website); hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,650; review about 177 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 53.3% (journal website); 45 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Adoption and Fostering is published by SAGE and is in Zone 4 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Child Welfare and Adoption, Political Systems and Governance and Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving, together about 37.5% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Adoption & Fostering is a quarterly peer reviewed journal which has been at the cutting edge of debate on childcare issues for over 50 years. It is the only UK journal dedicated to adoption and fostering issues, providing an international forum for a wide range of professionals: academics and practitioners in social work, psychology, law, medicine, education... View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): FAMILY STUDIES
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Child Welfare and AdoptionSocial Sciences23%
- Political Systems and GovernanceSocial Sciences7.8%
- Intergenerational Family Dynamics and CaregivingSocial Sciences6.8%
- Reproductive Health and TechnologiesMedicine6.1%
- Family and Disability Support ResearchPsychology4.7%
- Conflict of Laws and JurisdictionSocial Sciences4.6%
- Child Abuse and TraumaPsychology4.5%
- Human auditory perception and evaluationEngineering4.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Family Studies | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Family Studies | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 1.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 1.3LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.31LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.64LetPub ·
- h-index
- 44OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 406OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.82OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 10%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 50%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 30LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,352 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 29 | 16 | 10 |
| 2025 | 45 | 21 | 34 |
| 2024 | 31 | 17 | 42 |
| 2023 | 37 | 22 | 101 |
| 2022 | 46 | 9 | 122 |
| 2021 | 49 | 17 | 198 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
177 dayssubmission to acceptance
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 53.3%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 72 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 177 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 114 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,650 / GBP 2,676 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Colour charges
- No colour charges
- Other fees
- Charged; see the journal's website for the amount
- Page charges
- No page charges
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare9 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 7,000 words
- Reference style
- Harvard
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
- Not considered
- insufficient quality; missing plain language summary
Article types accepted7
- articlesArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
- book reviewArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
- book reviewsBook Reviews. A list of up-to-date books for review is available from the journal's Managing Editor.Length not stated
- case studyArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
- letterArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
- letters to the editorArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
- reviewArticles may cover any of the following: analyses of policies or the law; accounts of practice innovations and developments; findings of research and evaluation…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
EQUATOR reporting guidelines Model summary
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice pro…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Accepts preprints Model summary
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
Clinical trial registration required Model summary
The journal endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be …
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE
- ISSN
- 0308-5759
- Electronic ISSN
- 1740-469X
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Adoption and Fostering
What CAS zone is Adoption and Fostering in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Adoption and Fostering is in Zone 4 of Sociology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Family Studies. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Adoption and Fostering?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 1.3, h-index 44.
How long does peer review take at Adoption and Fostering?
The publisher reports about 177 days (submission to acceptance); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 53.3%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Adoption and Fostering?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 7,000 words; Reference style: Harvard; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Optional; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index Adoption and Fostering?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Adoption and Fostering is indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Is Adoption and Fostering open access, and what is the APC?
Adoption and Fostering is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .