Journal profile · ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
International Journal of the Commons
ISSN 1875-0281 · Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services) · Netherlands
International Journal of the Commons: CAS Zone 3 · Economics (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.25; fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 30 weeks (community reports); 30 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
International Journal of the Commons is published by Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services) and is in Zone 3 of Economics in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management, Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development and Forest Management and Policy, together about 36.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Global and Planetary Change. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The International Journal of the Commons (IJC) is an initiative of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). As an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open-access journal, the IJC is dedicated to furthering the understanding of institutions for use and management of resources that are (or could be) enjoyed collectively. These resources may be part of the natural world (e.g. forests, climate systems, or the oceans) or they may emerge from social realities created by humans (e.g. the internet or (scientific) knowledge, for example of the sort that is published in open-access journals). Using resources collectively is often believed to be problematic. In practice however, many cases can be found of common pool resources that are used in a sustainable way. The editors of the IJC welcome contributions from all scientific disciplines, from practitioners and policy makers. We hope that our interdisciplinary approach will contribute to creating a balanced and nuanced view of how common pool institutions actually emerge, develop and perform. Please contact the editors if you are not sure whether your research falls within IJC’s focus and scope.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Editor-in-chief Frank van LaerhovenPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 3%); most named United States 12, Netherlands 3, India 2, Spain 2, Norway 2 (34 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource ManagementEnvironmental Science24.3%
- Agriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentAgricultural and Biological Sciences6.6%
- Forest Management and PolicyEnvironmental Science6%
- Water Governance and InfrastructureSocial Sciences5.4%
- Land Rights and ReformsAgricultural and Biological Sciences5.2%
- Water resources management and optimizationEngineering4.7%
- Sustainability and Climate Change GovernanceEnvironmental Science4.3%
- Rangeland Management and Livestock EcologyEnvironmental Science4.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Economics Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Environmental Studies | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Economics Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Environmental Studies | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Economics Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Environmental Studies | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceERIH PLUSPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, CNKI, J-Gate, OCLC, Crossref, Sherpa Romeo
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
- 2.25LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2026
- 2.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.6LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.27LetPub ·
- h-index
- 57OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 438OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.69OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.5%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.06%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 29LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 876 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 35 | 35 | 7 |
| 2025 | 30 | 30 | 58 |
| 2024 | 45 | 45 | 341 |
| 2023 | 33 | 33 | 256 |
| 2022 | 23 | 23 | 242 |
| 2021 | 27 | 27 | 412 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 30 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 45 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
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | GBP 815 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | EUR 870 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 740 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 690 / GBP 815 / GBP 590 / GBP 100 / GBP 225 | — | — |
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Page charges
- GBP 690
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 prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- ≤ 6
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- Templates
- Word
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted10, with length limits
- editorialEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…Length not stated
- editorialsEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue.Length not stated
- opinionEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…Length not stated
- original researchEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…Length not stated
- perspectiveEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…main text ≤ 4,000 words
- perspectivesPerspectives that in a maximum of 4,000 words (references included) provide a forward-looking state-of-the-art reflection on possible future directions of our f…Length not stated
- research paperEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…Length not stated
- research papersResearch papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research.Length not stated
- reviewEditorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue. Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original rese…Length not stated
- review papersReview papers that cover topics such as current controversies or the historical development of commons studies.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Self-archiving
- AI use
AI use must be disclosed Model summary
If Generative AI tools have been used in the development of any portion of a manuscript, this use has been described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods section or in the Acknowledgements, as well as in the cover letter.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Competing interests
Competing interests must be declared Model summary
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. See our guidelines for competing interests. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Copyright: authors retain copyright, CC-BY license Model summary
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms. If a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s): Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. There is no embargo on the journal’s publications. Submission and acceptance dates, along with publication dates, are made available on the PDF format for each paper. Authors of articles published remain the copyright holde…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Peer review: double blind Model summary
The submission does not contain identifying information about the author, to ensure the viability of the double blind peer review
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Self-archiving Self-archiving
The International Journal of the Commons fully supports and encourages author self-archiving of all 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
- Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services)
- Country or region
- Netherlands
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1875-0281
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 20, Issue 1 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about International Journal of the Commons
What CAS zone is International Journal of the Commons in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, International Journal of the Commons is in Zone 3 of Economics, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Environmental Studies. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Economics. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of International Journal of the Commons?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.25; CiteScore 3.8, h-index 57.
How long does peer review take at International Journal of the Commons?
Authors report an average review time of about 30 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of International Journal of the Commons?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: ≤ 6; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: Author–date; Templates: Word; 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.
Where are the editorial board members of International Journal of the Commons based?
Of the 34 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 3%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (12), Netherlands (3) and India (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index International Journal of the Commons?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, International Journal of the Commons is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science and ERIH PLUS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is International Journal of the Commons open access, and what is the APC?
International Journal of the Commons is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, DOAJ; 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: .