Journal profile · Multiple
International Journal of Applied Linguistics
ISSN 0802-6106 · eISSN 1473-4192 · Wiley-Blackwell
International Journal of Applied Linguistics: CAS Zone 3 · Literature (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.71; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,240; median 154 days to acceptance (93 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 15% (journal website); 278 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI, AHCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
International Journal of Applied Linguistics is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 3 of Literature in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning, Multilingual Education and Policy and Second Language Learning and Teaching, together about 44.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Developmental and Educational Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The International Journal of Applied Linguistics publishes articles that focus on the mediation between expertise about language and experience of language. The journal seeks to develop an awareness of the way language works, how it affects peoples' lives, and what interventions are desirable and feasible to make in differing domains of language use and learning. Articles in InJAL should explicitly address the 'So what?' question: How do ideas, observations, results, suggestions presented in a paper relate to actual 'real world' problems involving language? How could or should what is discussed in a paper be followed up, or followed through, to practical proposals? Is there a convincing explicit connection between the disciplinary areas the author draws on and the domains where people engage with language? The journal thus conceives of applied linguistics as essentially being a process which seeks a negotiated settlement of language problems through the reconciliation of different and sometimes conflicting perspectives. The journal aims to cover all possible domains and fields of applied linguistics, including but not limited to: Analysis of Written Discourse and Spoken Interaction Assessment and Evaluation Bilingual, Immersion, Heritage, and Minority Education Corpus Linguistics Critical Discourse Analysis and Ideology Educational Linguistics Grammar, Syntax and Semantics: Learning and Teaching English as a Global Language Communication in Professional Contexts Language Attrition and Loss Language, Multimodality, and New Media Language and Intercultural Communication Language for Specific Purposes Language, Gender, and Sexuality Language Revitalization, Planning, and Policy Languages other than English Language Teacher Education and professional development Multilingualism and Plurilingualism Phonology/Phonetics and Oral Communication: Learning and Teaching Pragmatics and Pragmatic Competence Psycholinguistics, Language Cognition, and Processing Reading, Writing, and Literacy Research Methodology Second and Foreign Language Pedagogy (Second) Language Acquisition, socialisation, and Development Sociolinguistics and Language Use Technology-enhanced Language Education Translation and Interpretation Vocabulary and Lexical Studies: Learning and Teaching The language of this journal is English, but its concerns are by no means confined to what goes on in English native-speaking communities. We want to encourage submissions that show what issues in applied lingu
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Hong Kong, China 2, Macau, China 1, South Korea 1, Australia 1, Brazil 1 (7 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- EFL/ESL Teaching and LearningArts and Humanities20%
- Multilingual Education and PolicySocial Sciences12.6%
- Second Language Learning and TeachingArts and Humanities12.1%
- Second Language Acquisition and LearningPsychology8%
- Discourse Analysis in Language StudiesArts and Humanities7%
- Language, Discourse, Communication StrategiesArts and Humanities6.6%
- Linguistic Variation and MorphologySocial Sciences4.8%
- Language, Metaphor, and CognitionPsychology3.6%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Literature Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Language & Linguistics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Linguistics | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Literature Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Linguistics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Language & Linguistics | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Literature Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Language & Linguistics | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Linguistics | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIAHCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePsycINFOCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 3.71LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.17LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.66LetPub ·
- h-index
- 80OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 481OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.75OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 13.2%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 30.15%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 262LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 264Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 281,897Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,891 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 296 | 135 | 159 |
| 2025 | 278 | 148 | 1,017 |
| 2024 | 156 | 90 | 1,559 |
| 2023 | 86 | 55 | 572 |
| 2022 | 42 | 8 | 229 |
| 2021 | 87 | 10 | 367 |
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
154 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 104 days – 204 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 16 days (93 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 176 days
- Sample
- 93 articles with submission and acceptance dates (627 in the window); the latest was accepted on
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
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 15%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 15%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 141 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 17 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 3,240 / EUR 2,660 / GBP 2,160 | — | — |
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)
- 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 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 accepted7, with length limits
- editorialInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article Reply Submissions should be between 4,000 to a maximum of 8,000 wor…Length not stated
- original articleInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article Reply Submissions should be between 4,000 to a maximum of 8,000 wor…main text ≤ 8,000 words
- replyInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article ReplyLength not stated
- reviewInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article Reply Submissions should be between 4,000 to a maximum of 8,000 wor…Length not stated
- review articleInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article Reply Submissions should be between 4,000 to a maximum of 8,000 wor…Length not stated
- viewpointInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint Article Review Article Reply Submissions should be between 4,000 to a maximum of 8,000 wor…Length not stated
- viewpoint articleInJAL accepts the following article types: Original Article Viewpoint ArticleLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship Authorship
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Sharing and Data Availability
This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Reproduction of Copyright Material
If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access WALS + standard CTA/ELA and/or Open Access
You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License. For more journal-specific details about the Open Access policy, please click here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review 1. Submission and Peer Review Process
Submission Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, new submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://authors.wiley.com/journal/IJAL. You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission.wiley.com and clicking the "My Submissions" button. For technical help with the submission system,…
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
- Wiley-Blackwell
- ISSN
- 0802-6106
- Electronic ISSN
- 1473-4192
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 36, Issue 3 (August 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about International Journal of Applied Linguistics
What CAS zone is International Journal of Applied Linguistics in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, International Journal of Applied Linguistics is in Zone 3 of Literature, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Language & Linguistics / Education & Educational Research / Linguistics. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Literature. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of International Journal of Applied Linguistics?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.71; CiteScore 3.8, h-index 80.
How long does peer review take at International Journal of Applied Linguistics?
Based on the dates recorded on 93 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 154 days (interquartile range 104–204 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 15% (2025). 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 International Journal of Applied Linguistics?
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 International Journal of Applied Linguistics based?
Of the 7 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Hong Kong, China (2), Macau, China (1) and South Korea (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index International Journal of Applied Linguistics?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, International Journal of Applied Linguistics is indexed in SSCI, AHCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, PsycINFO and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is International Journal of Applied Linguistics open access, and what is the APC?
International Journal of Applied Linguistics is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,240.
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: .