Journal profile · PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED

Journal of Career Development

ISSN 0894-8453 · eISSN 1556-0856 · SAGE

Journal of Career Development: CAS Zone 3 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.33; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,650; 46 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.

Impact factor2.33Latest value listed by LetPub
CAS zoneZone 3 · Psychology2025 upgraded edition, major category · 2026 Xinrui edition Zone 2 · Psychology
Review time—Too few article dates (3)
APCUSD 3,650Hybrid journal: charged only for open-access articles
Acceptance—No reports yet
Articles per year462025 · OpenAlex count

Scope

Aims, scope and focus

Journal of Career Development is published by SAGE and is in Zone 3 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Career Development and Diversity, Higher Education and Employability and Higher Education Research Studies, together about 43.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

The Journal of Career Development (JCD) provides professionals in counseling, psychology, education, and student affairs with the most up-to-date concepts, ideas, and methodologies in career development theory, research, and practice. 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): PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED

Editorial board by country: 4 in mainland China (about 8%); most named United States 28, Mainland China 4, Switzerland 4, Taiwan, China 2, South Korea 2 (52 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·

Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate

  1. Career Development and DiversitySocial Sciences24%
  2. Higher Education and EmployabilitySocial Sciences12.3%
  3. Higher Education Research StudiesSocial Sciences7.4%
  4. Job Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorBusiness, Management and Accounting5.9%
  5. Education Systems and PolicySocial Sciences5.6%
  6. Mentoring and Academic DevelopmentPsychology4.4%
  7. Grit, Self-Efficacy, and MotivationPsychology4.4%
  8. Work-Family Balance ChallengesSocial Sciences3.8%

Rankings & indexing

CAS ranking and database indexing

CAS Journal Ranking

CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 3
LevelCategoryZone
MajorPsychologyZone 3
MinorPsychology, AppliedZone 4

Top journal: noReview journal: no

CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 2
LevelCategoryZone
MajorPsychologyZone 2
MinorPsychology, AppliedZone 2

Top journal: noReview journal: not marked

CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Psychology Zone 3
LevelCategoryZone
MajorPsychologyZone 3
MinorPsychology, AppliedZone 3

Top journal: noReview journal: no

Database indexing

SSCIScopusLetPub

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
2.33LetPub ·
Impact factor (publisher)
2.4Publisher website ·
5-year impact factor (publisher)
3.8Publisher website ·
CiteScore 2026-06
9.3LetPub ·
SJR 2026-06
1.28LetPub ·
SNIP 2026-06
1.94LetPub ·
h-index
87OpenAlex ·
i10-index
931OpenAlex ·
2-year mean citedness
2.67OpenAlex ·
Self-citation rate
4.2%LetPub ·
Share of gold OA articles
14.56%LetPub ·

Volume

Articles per year
45LetPub ·
Articles per year (publisher)
3Publisher website ·

Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,278 in total · the current year is incomplete

YearArticlesOpen accessCitations
202633165
2025461682
20243723223
2023219176
20226113803
202158231,634

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 PubMed · to

Too few articlesOnly 3 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

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.

SourceAPCFee waiverLicenseObserved
OpenAlexUSD 3,650 / GBP 2,676——
Publisher websiteYes, amount not published——

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)

Other fees
USD 800

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 prepare2 items from the author guidelines
Abstract
100–150 words
Reference style
APA
Publisher website · model-extracted, each line checked against the text
Article types accepted4
  1. narrative reviewOriginal Research Article Description: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in …Length not stated
  2. original research articleOriginal Research Article Description: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in …Length not stated
  3. research articleOriginal Research Article Description: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in …Length not stated
  4. reviewOriginal Research Article Description: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in …Length not stated
Publisher website
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
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. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, the following fees apply: journal charges $800 for first color image in print and $200 per additional image Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage…

Source ↗Publisher website ·
Peer review Peer review policy

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 ·
Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration

The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

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
0894-8453
Electronic ISSN
1556-0856
Official links

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Journal of Career Development

What CAS zone is Journal of Career Development in?

In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Career Development is in Zone 3 of Psychology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Psychology, Applied. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.

What is the impact factor of Journal of Career Development?

The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.33; CiteScore 9.3, h-index 87.

What are the manuscript requirements of Journal of Career Development?

According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 100–150 words; Reference style: APA. 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 Journal of Career Development based?

Of the 52 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 4 (about 8%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (28), Mainland China (4) and Switzerland (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.

Which databases index Journal of Career Development?

According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Career Development is indexed in SSCI and Scopus.

Is Journal of Career Development open access, and what is the APC?

Journal of Career Development 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: .