Journal profile · EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Journal of Curriculum Studies
ISSN 0022-0272 · eISSN 1366-5839 · ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD · ENGLAND · Bi-monthly · Founded 1968
Journal of Curriculum Studies: CAS Zone 2 · Education (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.62; JCR Q1 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 221 days to acceptance (95 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: 7%; 75 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Curriculum Studies is published by ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD and is in Zone 2 of Education in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy, Teacher Education and Leadership Studies and Global Educational Policies and Reforms, together about 35.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Journal of Curriculum Studies publishes conceptually rich contributions to all areas of curriculum studies, including those derived from empirical, philosophical, sociological, or policy-related investigations. The journal welcomes innovative papers that analyse the ways in which the social and institutional conditions of education and schooling contribute to shaping curriculum, including political, social and cultural studies; education policy; school reform and leadership; teaching; teacher education; curriculum development; and assessment and accountability. The prime focus of Journal of Curriculum Studies is to foster a broad cross-disciplinary discourse in the field of curriculum studies. This requires authors to connect their papers explicitly to the current discourse in that field, e.g., show how and why their contribution is relevant for the broader community as a whole. As a place for scholarly interaction and deliberation, we encourage authors to relate their findings to the longstanding strands of scholarly conversation within the Journal of Curriculum Studies. The Journal of Curriculum Studies does not subscribe to any particular methodology or theory. As the prime international source for curriculum research, the journal publishes papers accessible to all the national, cultural, and discipline-defined communities that form the readership. A clear answer to the following questions is basic to the writing and reading of Journal of Curriculum Studies papers: What would a reader in Osaka, Pretoria, Berlin, or Toronto take from your paper that has implications for her/his/their context? Embedded in the international context of conversation/debate/concern, what is the significance and the implication for (1) the issues examined, (2) the approach employed, and (3) the resolutions reached? Peer Review Policy: All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and external refereeing by at least two anonymous referees.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Editor-in-chief Zongyi DengPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Educator Training and Historical PedagogySocial Sciences14.6%
- Teacher Education and Leadership StudiesSocial Sciences12.1%
- Global Educational Policies and ReformsSocial Sciences8.7%
- Global Education and MulticulturalismSocial Sciences8%
- Education and Critical Thinking DevelopmentSocial Sciences5.2%
- Human auditory perception and evaluationEngineering4.7%
- Education Systems and PolicySocial Sciences4.3%
- Educational Theory and Curriculum StudiesSocial Sciences4.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Education Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Education Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Education Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q1 · best quartile · 2025
- CiteScore Q1 · 2025
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceERICCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: ProQuest, Academic Search, Advanced Placement Source, ArticleFirst, Book Review Digest, British Education Index, Current Abstracts, Education Abstracts, Education Index, Educational Research Abstracts online (ERA), Education Research Complete, Education Research Index, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Education Source, Educational Administration Abstracts, Electronic Collections Online, FRANCIS, Language Teaching, MLA International Bibliography, OmniFile, Professional Development Collection, Research into Higher Education Abstracts, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies, SocINDEX, Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
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
- 2.62LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 4.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.1LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher) 2025
- 1.1Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.42LetPub ·
- SNIP (publisher) 2025
- 2.42Publisher website ·
- h-index
- 114OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,244OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.9OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 18.5%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 35.83%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 71LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 415,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,792 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 47 | 31 | 13 |
| 2025 | 75 | 53 | 187 |
| 2024 | 65 | 41 | 343 |
| 2023 | 54 | 29 | 576 |
| 2022 | 22 | 11 | 425 |
| 2021 | 60 | 29 | 1,129 |
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
221 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 148 days – 335 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 16 days (95 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 241 days
- Sample
- 95 articles with submission and acceptance dates (130 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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 24 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- 7%LetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 10%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 8 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 93 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 30 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Anonymous peer reviewLetPub
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 accessLetPub
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
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)
Article types accepted1
- research articleResearch Article | Published online: 23 Sep 2026Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteOpen access, Peer review
- Open access Open access
Journal of Curriculum Studies is a hybrid open access journal that is part of the Taylor & Francis Open Select publishing program, giving you the option to publish open access. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research. Why choose open access? Increase the discoverabili…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Peer review policy: initial editor screening and external refereeing by at least two anonymous referees. Model summary
All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and external refereeing by at least two anonymous referees.
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
- ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English, Chinese
- Frequency
- Bi-monthly
- Founded
- 1968
- ISSN
- 0022-0272
- Electronic ISSN
- 1366-5839
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 58, Issue 5 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Curriculum Studies
What CAS zone is Journal of Curriculum Studies in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Curriculum Studies is in Zone 2 of Education, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Education & Educational Research. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Education. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Curriculum Studies?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.62; CiteScore 4.8, h-index 114.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Curriculum Studies?
Based on the dates recorded on 95 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 221 days (interquartile range 148–335 days); authors report an average review time of about 24 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “7%”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 10%. 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 JCR quartile is Journal of Curriculum Studies in?
The journal's website gives JCR Q1 (best quartile). JCR quartiles are Clarivate's to confirm and a different system from the CAS zones; in the CAS ranking the journal is in Zone 2 of Education.
Which databases index Journal of Curriculum Studies?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Curriculum Studies is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, ERIC and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Journal of Curriculum Studies open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Curriculum Studies is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
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: .