Journal of World Prehistory

Journal of World Prehistory is published by Springer Nature and is in Zone 1 of History in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Archaeology and ancient environmental studies, Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology and Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies, together about 58.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Archeology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Aims and scopeJournal of World Prehistory is an international forum for the publication of peer-reviewed, original treatments of the prehistory of an area or larger region. It was founded nearly thirty years ago with the remit of providing researchers, instructors and students with timely and authoritative research syntheses from all fields of archaeology. Journal of World Prehistory continues to lead in this field.Our classic articles may be 20,000 or 25,000 words long, as appropriate (excluding their extensive bibliographies). Since 2008 they have been joined by shorter (around 10,000 words), position pieces, which provide in-depth, thoughtful development of data and concepts, including interventions in controversies that unfold in our pages. These, written in a fashion interesting and accessible to all archaeologists, are often paired with a longer treatment in a single volume. In addition, readers now benefit from thematic special issues and double issues, in which a number of leading authors deal with a key theme in world prehistory, such as the origins of metallurgy (2009, volumes 22: 3 and 4), or the East Asian Neolithic (2013, in preparation). All papers are available first online, followed by the print edition.We aim to be truly global in coverage, with recent articles dealing, inter alia, with Amazonian lithics, the late Jomon of Hokkaido, the Bronze Age in Southeast Asia, the Neanderthal settlement of Doggerland, Neolithic networks in Western Asia, younger Dryas Paleo-Indian adaptations, and state formation in the Horn of Africa. Articles benefit from multi-language abstracts where appropriate, and we work closely with authors who do not have English as a first language to present major syntheses in a clear and concise way to an international audience.Traditionally, JWP focuses on earlier periods, but it includes the beginnings and early development of complex societies, and our understanding of ‘prehistory’ is broad and inclusive: for guidance on chronological scope, as well as our calendrical conventions, see the editorial article ‘Prehistory vs. Archaeology: terms of Engagement’ http://www.springerlink.com/content/346142p032604447/Our unique remit means that we do not encourage the submission of unsolicited papers; rather, specific proposals are encouraged and then guided prior to independent peer review. Our aims and the way we fulfil them, with close contact with authors throughout the publication process, mean that JWP is not a venue for t

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Multiple

Editor-in-chief Timothy TaylorPublisher website

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United Kingdom 2, United States 1, Canada 1 (4 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SSCIAHCIScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

SCIEERIH PLUSCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS

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.

Impact

Impact factor

2.46LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2024

3.1Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2024

3.3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

6LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher)

7.6Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

2.49LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

4LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

91OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

306OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

2.17OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

8%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

73.33%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

17LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher) 2025

453,900Publisher website · 2026-09-29

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.

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.

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.

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.

Publisher

Springer Nature

Frequency

4 issues per year

ISSN

0892-7537

Electronic ISSN

1573-7802

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Author guidelines ↗LetPub