Journal profile · Arts and Humanities-Philosophy
Journal of Social Ontology
ISSN 2196-9663 · Walter de Gruyter · Germany
Journal of Social Ontology: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 16 weeks (community reports); 19 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Social Ontology is published by Walter de Gruyter. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Critical Realism in Sociology, Philosophical Ethics and Theory and Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics, together about 45.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Philosophy. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The Journal of Social Ontology (JSO) is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to social ontology and collective intentionality that was founded in 2015 and is published as an open access journal. It is supported by International Social Ontology Society and the University of Vienna. The Journal of Social Ontology publishes work in social ontology broadly understood. Social ontology is about the nature and (presumed) existence of social phenomena, such as cooperation, institutions, laws, social collectives, and social categories (e.g., gender and race). Work in other areas with a clear relevance to questions of social ontology, including empirical work, is also considered within the scope of the journal. The journal provides a forum for exchanges between scholars of diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds. In addition to major articles, JSO publishes book reviews and shorter discussion articles. Topics Social ontology and collective intentionality Basic structures of the social world Interdisciplinary perspective including moral, social and political philosophy, sociology, anthropology, cognitive science, human sciences, economics, history, law, political science, and psychology Peer Review Policy The Journal of Social Ontology practices double-anonymous peer review. This means that the identity of the author will remain unknown to the referees and the referees will remain anonymous to the author. All submissions receive an initial editorial review (i.e. desk review). Submissions that are rejected at this stage will not be accompanied by a report. Submissions that are not rejected at this stage will be send to at least two independent referees that are experts in the relevant subfield(s) selected by the Editors. The Journal of Social Ontology is committed to maintaining the highest standards of scholarly rigor and requires two (2) positive reviews by independent reviewers as well as the Editorial Board’s approval for any decision to publish. Reviewers must be in no relevant relationship to the author, i.e. they cannot be affiliated with the same institutions or function(ed) as a supervisor. It is sometimes not possible to provide two reports for all manuscripts and the editorial staff will occasionally provide a decision with one report—though generally all submissions not rejected in the initial review will be returned along with two (2) reports. Our invitation to referee this paper is based on the assumption that you do not know the identity of
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Arts and Humanities-Philosophy
Editor-in-chief Glenda SatnePublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Critical Realism in SociologySocial Sciences17.7%
- Philosophical Ethics and TheoryArts and Humanities14.5%
- Epistemology, Ethics, and MetaphysicsArts and Humanities13.3%
- Philosophy and Theoretical SciencePsychology10.9%
- Philosophy and History of ScienceArts and Humanities7.1%
- Feminist Epistemology and Gender StudiesSocial Sciences5.2%
- Political Philosophy and EthicsSocial Sciences5%
- Economic Theory and InstitutionsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance3.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | Q2 | 283/891 | 68th |
| Language and Linguistics | Q2 | 416/1137 | 63rd |
| Anthropology | Q2 | 261/536 | 51st |
| Communication | Q3 | 356/541 | 34th |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous) | Q4 | 214/283 | 24th |
| Social Psychology | Q4 | 271/315 | 14th |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 0.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.25LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.6LetPub ·
- h-index
- 27OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 54OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.13OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 209 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 5 | 5 | 104 |
| 2025 | 19 | 19 | 463 |
| 2024 | 21 | 21 | 306 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4 | 373 |
| 2022 | 19 | 19 | 338 |
| 2021 | 12 | 12 | 259 |
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 16 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 16 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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — |
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
- ≤ 250 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 12,000 words
- Reference style
- Chicago
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
Article types accepted6, with length limits
- articlesArticles: 60,000 characters (12,000 words).Length not stated
- book review,000 characters (4,000 to 6,000 words). Book reviews: 7,500 characters (1,500 words). Cumulative book reviews: 12,000 characters (2,400 words).main text ≤ 1,500 words
- book reviewsBook reviews: 7,500 characters (1,500 words).Length not stated
- contributions to book symposiaContributions to Book Symposia: 20,000 to 30,000 characters (4,000 to 6,000 words).Length not stated
- cumulative book reviewsCumulative book reviews: 12,000 characters (2,400 words).Length not stated
- discussion articlesDiscussion articles: 15,000–30,000 characters (3,000 to 6,000 words)Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- License & copyright Copyright and Licensing
All articles submitted are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). (Earlier submissions were licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND license.) The author(s) retain full copyright over their submissions.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access Statement
Journal of Social Ontology is a self-published, Open Access journal, which makes papers freely available to all readers without any cost to authors, their institutions, or those who submit papers. In other words, we do not have any submission or publication fees.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review JSO‘s Peer Review Policy
Journal of Social Ontology practices double-anonymous peer review. This means that the identity of the author will remain unknown to the referees and the referees will remain anonymous to the author. All submissions receive an initial editorial review (i.e. desk review). Submissions that are rejected at this stage will not be accompanied by a report. Submissions that are not rejected at this stage…
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
- Walter de Gruyter
- Country or region
- Germany
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2196-9663
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 12, Issue 1 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Social Ontology
How long does peer review take at Journal of Social Ontology?
Authors report an average review time of about 16 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 Journal of Social Ontology?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 12,000 words; Reference style: Chicago; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not 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 Social Ontology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Social Ontology is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Journal of Social Ontology open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Social Ontology is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .