Journal profile · SOCIAL WORK
Journal of Public Child Welfare
ISSN 1554-8732 · eISSN 1554-8740 · Taylor & Francis
Journal of Public Child Welfare: CAS Zone 4 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.52; JCR Q2 (journal website); hybrid open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 193 days to acceptance (99 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 41% (journal website); 59 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Public Child Welfare is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 4 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Child Welfare and Adoption, Child Abuse and Trauma and Homelessness and Social Issues, together about 56.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Clinical Psychology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Decisions made in the practice of child welfare have lifelong effects on children and their entire families which in turn affects every facet of society. To effectively practice in this vital field, social workers, psychologists, counselors, juvenile court judges, attorneys, and other child welfare professionals need to stay informed about the latest findings and important issues in public child welfare. To answer this crucial need, the Journal of Public Child Welfare provides a broad forum for theory-based and applied research in child welfare. Rather than limit itself to primarily private agencies, this essential journal provides the quality research and comprehensive information that child welfare professionals and public agencies need most. The legal mandate of vital public child welfare programs is safety, permanence, and child and family well-being. With this in mind, the Journal of Public Child Welfare presents quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods theory-based or applied research, cogent reviews of the literature, policy analyses, and program evaluation articles about child welfare. Peer Review Policy: All articles in this journal have undergone rigorous double anonymized peer and editorial review with feedback to the authors.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): SOCIAL WORK
Editor-in-chief Becci Akin, PhD, MSWPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Child Welfare and AdoptionSocial Sciences24.2%
- Child Abuse and TraumaPsychology20.8%
- Homelessness and Social IssuesHealth Professions11.5%
- Social Work Education and PracticeSocial Sciences10.1%
- Intergenerational Family Dynamics and CaregivingSocial Sciences4.4%
- Family and Disability Support ResearchPsychology3.8%
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychology2.9%
- Migration, Health and TraumaPsychology2.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Social Work | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Social Work | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Social Work | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q2 · best quartile · 2025
- CiteScore Q2 · 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
CINAHLPublisher website
Other: Child Welfare Information Gateway, CSA Social Services Abstracts, Current Abstracts, EBSCOhost Online Research Databases, Family Index Database, Health & Psychological Instruments, Index Copernicus, MasterFile Premier, PILOTS Database, Social Care Institute for Excellence, SocINDEX, Sociological Abstracts, Studies on Women & 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
- 1.52LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.5LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 2.5Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.41LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher) 2025
- 0.41Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.94LetPub ·
- SNIP (publisher) 2025
- 0.94Publisher website ·
- h-index
- 40OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 278OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.51OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 13.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 6.1%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 60LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 102,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 799 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 67 | 21 | 15 |
| 2025 | 59 | 17 | 64 |
| 2024 | 63 | 23 | 207 |
| 2023 | 43 | 3 | 146 |
| 2022 | 46 | 11 | 294 |
| 2021 | 39 | 5 | 320 |
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
193 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 156 days – 292 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 10 days (99 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 233 days
- Sample
- 99 articles with submission and acceptance dates (137 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)
- 41%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 58 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 77 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
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)
Article types accepted2
- research articleResearch Article | Published online: 4 Sep 2026Length not stated
- review articleReview Article | Published online: 15 Sep 2026Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteOpen access, Peer review
- Open access Open access
Journal of Public Child Welfare 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 discoverabi…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
All articles in this journal have undergone rigorous double anonymized peer and editorial review with feedback to the authors. Model summary
All articles in this journal have undergone rigorous double anonymized peer and editorial review with feedback to the authors.
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
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 1554-8732
- Electronic ISSN
- 1554-8740
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 20, Issue 4 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Public Child Welfare
What CAS zone is Journal of Public Child Welfare in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Public Child Welfare is in Zone 4 of Sociology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Social Work. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Public Child Welfare?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.52; CiteScore 2.5, h-index 40.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Public Child Welfare?
Based on the dates recorded on 99 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 193 days (interquartile range 156–292 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 41%. 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 Public Child Welfare in?
The journal's website gives JCR Q2 (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 4 of Sociology.
Which databases index Journal of Public Child Welfare?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Public Child Welfare is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists CINAHL; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Journal of Public Child Welfare open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Public Child Welfare is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .