Journal profile · COMMUNICATION
Journal of Communication
ISSN 0021-9916 · eISSN 1460-2466 · Wiley-Blackwell
Journal of Communication: CAS Zone 1 · Literature (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 4.67; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,235; 56 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Communication is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 1 of Literature in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Media Studies and Communication, Social Media and Politics and Communication in Education and Healthcare, together about 38.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Communication. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The Journal of Communication (JOC) is the flagship journal of the International Communication Association and an essential publication for all communication specialists and policy makers. The Journal of Communication concentrates on communication research, practice, policy, and theory, bringing to its readers the latest, broadest, and most important findings in the field of communication studies. Journal of Communication also features an extensive book review section, and the symposia of selected studies on current issues. JOC publishes the best available scholarship on all aspects of communication. Since the journal seeks to be a general forum for communication scholarship, it is especially interested in research whose significance crosses disciplinary and sub-field boundaries. Journal metrics Citation metrics Clarivate 2025 Impact Factor 5.3 2025 5 Year Impact Factor 7.6 Communication (Rank by Impact Factor) 11/227 2025 Cited Half-Life 14.9 years 2025 Immediacy Index 1.3 2025 Eigenfactor Score 0.00415 2025 Article Influence Score 2.641 Scopus 2025 CiteScore 8.6 Language And Linguistics (Rank by CiteScore) 24/1137 Linguistics And Language (Rank by CiteScore) 28/1221 Communication (Rank by CiteScore) 27/541 2025 Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2.621 Readership 2025 Full Text Usage 574,485 About metrics
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): COMMUNICATION
Editor-in-chief David R. EwoldsenPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Media Studies and CommunicationSocial Sciences17.8%
- Social Media and PoliticsSocial Sciences13.2%
- Communication in Education and HealthcarePsychology7.4%
- Media Influence and HealthArts and Humanities6.9%
- Rhetoric and Communication StudiesArts and Humanities5.3%
- Human auditory perception and evaluationEngineering4.9%
- Public Relations and Crisis CommunicationSocial Sciences3.6%
- Media, Gender, and AdvertisingSocial Sciences3.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Literature Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Communication | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Literature Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Communication | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Literature Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Communication | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview 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
- 4.67LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 8.6Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 7.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 8.6LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 8.6Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.08LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.62LetPub ·
- h-index
- 234OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 2,456OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 5.55OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.8%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 33.07%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 43LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 574,485Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 5,130 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 17 | 9 | 2 |
| 2025 | 56 | 28 | 235 |
| 2024 | 52 | 23 | 457 |
| 2023 | 49 | 18 | 892 |
| 2022 | 52 | 20 | 1,386 |
| 2021 | 51 | 16 | 1,792 |
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 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
- 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 4,235 | — | — |
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 prepare4 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 150 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 5
- Reference style
- APA
- Cover letter
- Required
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints, Self-archiving
- Data availability Availability of Data and Materials
Data citation required for publicly available datasets Model summary
Where ethically feasible, Journal of Communication strongly encourages authors to make all data on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Publication Ethics
Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics. Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt w…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Agreement Information for authors with Funder arrangements
Certain funders, including the European Research Council (ERC), NIH, members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust require deposit of the Accepted Version in a repository after an embargo period. Details of funding arrangements are set out at the following website: Complying with funder policies. Please contact the Journal production editor if you have additional funding requiremen…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
Journal of Communication offers the option of publishing under either a standard license or an open access license. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution. Should you wish to publish your article open access, yo…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Summary of Peer-Review Process
Properly-formatted manuscripts considered by the editors-in-chief to be of sufficient quality and in line with the Journal of Communication’s mission will be assigned to one of the editors-in-chief to oversee the external review process. This editor will serve as action editor or assign the manuscript to an associate editor to serve as the action editor for the work. The action editors will secure…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint policy
Preprint allowed Model summary
Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiv…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Self-archiving Self-Archiving policy
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
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
- 0021-9916
- Electronic ISSN
- 1460-2466
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 76, Issue 5 (October 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Communication
What CAS zone is Journal of Communication in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Communication is in Zone 1 of Literature, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Communication; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Literature. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Communication?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.67; CiteScore 8.6, h-index 234.
What are the manuscript requirements of Journal of Communication?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 150 words; Keywords: ≥ 5; Reference style: APA; 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.
Which databases index Journal of Communication?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Communication is indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Is Journal of Communication open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Communication is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,235.
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: .