Democracy & Security

Democracy & Security is published by Taylor & Francis 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 Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence, Political Conflict and Governance and Global Peace and Security Dynamics, together about 33.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science and Political Science and International Relations. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Democracy and Security is the authoritative source for rigorous exploration of the mechanisms and policies utilized by democracies to deal with security challenges, as well as relevant moral, social, and political dilemmas. The journal publishes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical articles on concepts and functions that shape the relations between various international and national security policies, concerns, and needs on the one hand, and central values, institutions, and processes of democratic societies on the other. The journal is committed to provide exposure to diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, as well as policy approaches. Democracy and Security features timely and informative contributions from leading scholars on a range of topics, including: Democratic societies and their struggle with domestic threats. Moral dimensions of national security in democracies. Legal dimensions of national security in democracies. Mass communications and national security. Social implications on national security issues. Constraints of democratic governments in shaping national security policy. Forms of government and perceptions of national dilemmas. Democracies, minorities, and national security. The role of civil society in shaping national security decisions in democratic regimes. Public opinion, counter-terrorism, and national security dilemmas. The politics of defense policies. The psychology of decision-making processes in the context of national security issues. Civilian sphere of domestic and human security. The role of the legislative branch in shaping security policies. Electoral processes, party politics, and national security. Democracy and Security will be of interest to scholars from a variety of academic disciplines such as: political science, sociology, philosophy, law, psychology, mass communications, criminology, security studies, environmental studies, history, military studies, and anthropology. Peer Review: All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the editors, and, if found suitable for further consideration, are then subject to peer review by two or more independent, anonymous expert referees. For special issues, articles will be reviewed by the journal editors and a single expert referee for all items in the special issue. Book reviews do not go through peer review and are typically solicited and assessed by the journal’s editorial team. All peer review is single anonymized and submission is online vi

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): POLITICAL SCIENCE

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• CiteScore Q2 · 2025

Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website

Database indexing

ESCIScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

OCLC, CSA, EBSCOhost Online Research Databases, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA), The Standard Periodical Directory, Ulrichs Periodicals DirectoryPublisher website

As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.

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.

Impact

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

1.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

1.1Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

2.4LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

2.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

0.38LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

0.38Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SNIP 2026-06

0.04LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

0.04Publisher website · 2026-09-29

h-index

28OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

98OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

0.59OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

0%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

16.39%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

21LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

56,000Publisher website · 2026-09-29

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.

Figures by source

Acceptance rate (publisher)

10%Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Submission to first decision

83 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

First decision after review

150 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Peer review

Single 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.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

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.

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

1741-9166

Electronic ISSN

1555-5860

Latest issue on the website

Volume 22, Issue 3 (2026)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Submission system ↗Publisher website
• Special issues ↗Publisher website