Journal profile · Social Sciences-Social Sciences (all)
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung
ISSN 1438-5627 · Institut fur Klinische Sychologie and Gemeindesychologie · Germany
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 20 weeks (community reports); 70 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung is published by Institut fur Klinische Sychologie and Gemeindesychologie. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Qualitative Research Methods and Applications, Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics and Sociology and Education Studies, together about 47.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science and Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
FQS is a peer-reviewed bilingual open-access journal for qualitative research, established in 2000 and published three times a year. We accept single contributions on topics and methods, important for qualitative research as well as contributions to the sections FQS Debates, FQS Interviews, FQS Reviews and FQS Conferences. Visit our Section Policies for further information. Additionally, thematic issues are published according to prior agreement with the FQS Editors. FQS is covered by various indexing/abstracting services, e.g.: Cabell's Directories, DEPOT, Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, HINARI, IBZ Online, IBR-Online, OARE, OpenAlex, ProQuest, the Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) und SCOPUS. Why FQS? When we began publishing in 2000 there were few (online) discussion venues: Such disciplinary venues existed more or less independently of one another. In addition to disciplinary boundaries, national boundaries also worked in a very restrictive way. For example, United States' qualitative research communities' reception of theoretical approaches written in German more or less ceased with the works of early phenomenological writers. Methodologies and methods such as the narrative interview, the problem-centered interview, or objective hermeneutics were largely unknown in non-German-language contexts. On the other hand, only a few methodological developments from abroad reached the German-speaking research community. Furthermore, back in 2000 German-language qualitative research was rarely present on the Web. While English language online journals and mailing lists had been existing for many years, there had been few comparable efforts within German-language qualitative research. Also, in the case of English-language online journals, traditional media and their way of functioning were merely transferred to the Net. Current State That FQS contributed to an improvement of the situation described above, becomes apparent when looking at the issues, published since 2000 by authors from all over the world. Our newsletter is distributed to more than 25,000 colleagues three times a year, many others access our content without being registered, so FQS is one of the most broadly received qualitative research journals. While we are able to secure traditional quality standards of print-publishing by providing peer review and copy-editing, we are not subject to place restrictions. So it is possible to provide more detailed inform
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Social Sciences (all)
Editor-in-chief Katja MruckPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Qualitative Research Methods and ApplicationsSocial Sciences21.8%
- Qualitative Research Methods and EthicsSocial Sciences18.4%
- Sociology and Education StudiesSocial Sciences7.4%
- Qualitative research in healthSocial Sciences5.6%
- Data Analysis and ArchivingSocial Sciences5.2%
- Focus Groups and Qualitative MethodsSocial Sciences4.7%
- Participatory Visual Research MethodsSocial Sciences4.2%
- Educational Research and MethodsSocial Sciences3.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Social Sciences | Q2 | 97/286 | 66th |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.55LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.2LetPub ·
- h-index
- 91OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 767OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.39OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,601 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 38 | 38 | 1,039 |
| 2025 | 70 | 70 | 2,768 |
| 2024 | 49 | 49 | 4,002 |
| 2023 | 65 | 65 | 4,473 |
| 2022 | 40 | 40 | 3,992 |
| 2021 | 70 | 70 | 4,710 |
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
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
Too few articlesOnly 1 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 20 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 20 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
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)
Article types accepted6
- fqs conferencesIn the section FQS Conferences we provide important space for reports on conferences, workshops, symposia, and meetings of working groups.Length not stated
- fqs debateFQS Debate: Qualitative Research and EthicsLength not stated
- fqs debatesFQS Debates aim to support the continual and controversial discussion of issues, important for qualitative researchers.Length not stated
- fqs interviewsIn this rubric we publish interviews with individuals engaged in qualitative research, as FQS aims to contribute to a vivid and transparent exchange beyond disc…Length not stated
- fqs reviewsIn FQS Reviews we publish reviews of books, book series, films, CD-ROMS and on-line journals that contribute areas neglected by today's journal market.Length not stated
- single contributionsSingle contributions can be submitted at any point in time. We are interested in reports from empirical studies and in contributions, dealing with the theory, m…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websitePublication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism
- Publication ethics
Authors must review the Ethics Statement covering ethical standards, authorship, originality, plagiarism, AI tools, conflicts of interest, and misconduct. Model summary
Please review our Ethics Statement and the principles outlined therein, concerning e.g., ethical standards, authorship, originality, plagiarism and the use of AI tools, conflicts of interest, and actions in the case of misconduct.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License; metadata under CC0. Model summary
All articles in FQS are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, metadata via interface under CC0. You may freely make use of the corresponding texts in accordance to the conditions of the license (license contract, generally understandable version). There is no exclusive transfer of usage rights (copyright transfer). FQS does not charge authors any costs for public…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access
Diamond Open Access Model summary
As a Diamond Open Access journal, FQS is funded by a library consortium organized by SocioHub, i.e., authors do not have to pay any Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Open peer review; manuscripts must be fully anonymized before submission. Model summary
To open peer review, please make sure to fully anonymize the manuscript before submitting. This concerns author names as well as other information that might allow reviewers to identify you.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism
Submissions must be original and not published or under submission elsewhere in similar form. Model summary
The contributions submitted should be original ones. They should not have been published or submitted for publishing at any other point in time in a similar form or with generally the same content.
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
- Institut fur Klinische Sychologie and Gemeindesychologie
- Country or region
- Germany
- Language
- English, Spanish, German
- ISSN
- 1438-5627
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 27, Issue 2 (2026)
- Official links
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung
How long does peer review take at Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung?
Authors report an average review time of about 20 weeks. 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.
Which databases index Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung open access, and what is the APC?
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .