Journal profile
Law Democracy Development
ISSN 2077-4907 · University of the Western Cape · South Africa
Law Democracy Development: fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 6 weeks (community reports); 18 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Law Democracy Development is published by University of the Western Cape. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Legal Issues in South Africa, Legal and Labor Studies and Comparative constitutional jurisprudence studies, together about 46.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Political Science and International Relations and Law. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Democracy, good governance, human rights and socio-economic development are critical matters for South Africa and Africa as a whole. Our aim is to provide a forum where scholars, practitioners and policy-makers can debate the issues surrounding them and, in doing so, contribute to shared knowledge and insight.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named South Africa 3, India 1, Australia 1 (5 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Legal Issues in South AfricaSocial Sciences35.1%
- Legal and Labor StudiesBusiness, Management and Accounting6.2%
- Comparative constitutional jurisprudence studiesSocial Sciences5.4%
- Labor Law and Work DynamicsSocial Sciences5.4%
- International Law and Human RightsSocial Sciences5.1%
- Legal Rights and Human RightsSocial Sciences4.7%
- Judicial and Constitutional StudiesSocial Sciences3.8%
- World Trade Organization LawSocial Sciences3.4%
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.
Database indexing
DOAJLetPub
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
- h-index
- 20OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 43OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.43OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 425 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 26 | 26 | 101 |
| 2025 | 18 | 18 | 186 |
| 2024 | 14 | 14 | 172 |
| 2023 | 19 | 19 | 198 |
| 2022 | 14 | 14 | 125 |
| 2021 | 33 | 33 | 147 |
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 6 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 6 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Unspecified 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
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | ZAR 4,000 | No | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | ZAR 12,000 | — | — | |
| LetPub | ZAR 12,000 | 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)
Article types accepted2
- articlesAll articles, unless otherwise indicated, are peer-reviewed - that is, anonymously assessed by independent experts.Length not stated
- forum contributionsIn addition, we also publish reviews, commentaries or other contributions which the editors consider topical or important but which have not been subjected to t…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright, Peer review
- License & copyright
Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC-BY 4.0; copyright retained by authors Model summary
All articles in Law, Democracy & Development are published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC-BY 4.0. Copyright is retained by the authors.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Peer review: articles anonymously assessed by independent experts unless otherwise indicated Model summary
All articles, unless otherwise indicated, are peer-reviewed - that is, anonymously assessed by independent experts.
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
- University of the Western Cape
- Country or region
- South Africa
- Language
- English, French, Xhosa
- ISSN
- 2077-4907
- Official links
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Law Democracy Development
How long does peer review take at Law Democracy Development?
Authors report an average review time of about 6 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Law Democracy Development based?
Of the 5 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are South Africa (3), India (1) and Australia (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Law Democracy Development?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Law Democracy Development is indexed in DOAJ.
Is Law Democracy Development open access, and what is the APC?
Law Democracy Development is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .