Journal profile · EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Improving Schools
ISSN 1365-4802 · eISSN 1475-7583 · SAGE
Improving Schools: CAS Zone 4 · Education (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.7 (journal website); hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,650; 20 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Improving Schools is published by SAGE and is in Zone 4 of Education in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Teacher Education and Leadership Studies, Education Systems and Policy and Early Childhood Education and Development, together about 39.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Improving Schools provides an international forum for peer-reviewed research that interrogates, reimagines and strengthens school improvement, with particular attention to the organisational and systemic levels of action. The journal positions school improvement as a fundamentally human endeavour and foregrounds the question of what schools are actually for, who … | 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): EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Editor-in-chief Martin BrownPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 5%); most named United States 8, United Kingdom 7, Hong Kong, China 5, Australia 4, Ireland 3 (40 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Teacher Education and Leadership StudiesSocial Sciences18.7%
- Education Systems and PolicySocial Sciences11.9%
- Early Childhood Education and DevelopmentSocial Sciences9%
- Parental Involvement in EducationSocial Sciences6.9%
- Educational Assessment and ImprovementDecision Sciences6.1%
- Collaborative Teaching and InclusionSocial Sciences5.2%
- Educational and Psychological AssessmentsPsychology3.5%
- Global Education and MulticulturalismSocial Sciences3.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Education Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Education Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 3 |
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)
- 2.7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 1.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.55LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.65LetPub ·
- h-index
- 51OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 245OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.49OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 37.5%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 21LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 887 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 42 | 21 | 12 |
| 2025 | 20 | 18 | 22 |
| 2024 | 13 | 1 | 3 |
| 2023 | 6 | 4 | 33 |
| 2022 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| 2021 | 23 | 11 | 236 |
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
- 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.
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 prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
Article types accepted5, with length limits
- conceptual and practitioner contributionsConceptual and practitioner contributions (4,000–6,000 words)Length not stated
- original research articleImproving Schools welcomes submissions from the following article types: Original research articles (6,000–8,000 words) Systematic reviews (up to 10,000 words) …main text ≤ 8,000 words
- original research articlesOriginal research articles (6,000–8,000 words)Length not stated
- systematic reviewImproving Schools welcomes submissions from the following article types: Original research articles (6,000–8,000 words) Systematic reviews (up to 10,000 words) …main text ≤ 10,000 words
- systematic reviewsSystematic reviews (up to 10,000 words)Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
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 colour 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 pr…
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
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 ·
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
- 1365-4802
- Electronic ISSN
- 1475-7583
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Improving Schools
What CAS zone is Improving Schools in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Improving Schools is in Zone 4 of Education, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Education & Educational Research. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Education. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Improving Schools?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 2.7; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 4.4, h-index 51.
What are the manuscript requirements of Improving Schools?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Improving Schools based?
Of the 40 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (8), United Kingdom (7) and Hong Kong, China (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Improving Schools?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Improving Schools is indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Is Improving Schools open access, and what is the APC?
Improving Schools is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, 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: .