Journal profile · EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Leadership and Policy in Schools
ISSN 1570-0763 · eISSN 1744-5043 · Taylor & Francis
Leadership and Policy in Schools: CAS Zone 4 · Education (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.4 (journal website); JCR Q2 (journal website); hybrid open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 66 days (first decision after review, publisher); acceptance rate 35% (journal website); 99 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Leadership and Policy in Schools is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 4 of Education in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Teacher Education and Leadership Studies, Educational Assessment and Improvement and School Choice and Performance, together about 47.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
We invite manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Leadership and Policy in Schools for review. Submitted papers should align with the following journal scope as presented: Leadership and Policy in Schools aims to provide a high-quality forum for educational researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to publish analyses and research about how school leaders and educational policies utilize fiscal, material, and human resources to bring about change in education and effectiveness in schools in different global contexts. The scope of the journal will encompass studies about leadership, policy, and politics in primary and secondary educational environments. Studies that utilize school and community learning space as their primary unit of analysis are of particular interest. Such studies will include schools from diverse contexts in the public and private sectors. Studies of leadership in university settings will be desk rejected. The editors also welcome manuscripts from diverse disciplinary perspectives, including economic, political, historical, demographic, and financial analyses. In addition to original research papers, we will accept other features such as meta-analysis. Research scoping, innovative and provocative commentaries, thinking pieces, or conceptual papers stimulating timely debate around leadership and policy or ecological forces impacting K-12 education are particularly encouraged. Peer Review Policy: All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous, double anonymized peer review based on an initial editor screening followed by anonymous refereeing by three anonymous referees. As part of the submission process author/s will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal, that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you. The main text should be approximately 8,000-10,000 words (max 12,000), but online supplemental material has no word limit. Desk rejects While we receive numerous manuscripts that captivate our interest and exhibit promise, a significant portion undergoes desk rejection as they are not yet prepared for external review. Common reasons for desk rejections include papers failing to mee
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Editor-in-chief Khalid Arar TexasPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 31, Hong Kong, China 4, United Kingdom 1, Malaysia 1, United Arab Emirates 1 (39 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Teacher Education and Leadership StudiesSocial Sciences30.1%
- Educational Assessment and ImprovementDecision Sciences10.1%
- School Choice and PerformanceSocial Sciences7.6%
- Collaborative Teaching and InclusionSocial Sciences6.4%
- Parental Involvement in EducationSocial Sciences6.1%
- Evaluation and Performance AssessmentDecision Sciences3.4%
- Educational and Psychological AssessmentsPsychology3.1%
- Education Systems and PolicySocial Sciences3.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Education Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Education Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Education | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Education & Educational Research | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q2 · 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
ESCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PubMedERICPublisher website
Other: ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Elsevier BV, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), National Library of Medicine, Ovid, Taylor & Francis
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 (publisher) 2025
- 1.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.8LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 4.8Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.69LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher) 2025
- 0.69Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.21LetPub ·
- SNIP (publisher) 2025
- 1.21Publisher website ·
- h-index
- 58OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 402OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.39OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 7.1%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 12.08%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 97LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 162,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 990 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 106 | 29 | 40 |
| 2025 | 99 | 26 | 357 |
| 2024 | 80 | 18 | 284 |
| 2023 | 37 | 9 | 249 |
| 2022 | 53 | 6 | 543 |
| 2021 | 68 | 10 | 834 |
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
Too few articlesOnly 1 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
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".
Figures by source
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 35%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 30 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 66 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 11 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)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 12,000 words
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
Article types accepted7
- conceptual papersResearch scoping, innovative and provocative commentaries, thinking pieces, or conceptual papers stimulating timely debate around leadership and policy or ecolo…Length not stated
- innovative and provocative commentariesResearch scoping, innovative and provocative commentaries, thinking pieces, or conceptual papers stimulating timely debate around leadership and policy or ecolo…Length not stated
- meta-analysisIn addition to original research papers, we will accept other features such as meta-analysis.Length not stated
- original research papersIn addition to original research papers, we will accept other features such as meta-analysis.Length not stated
- research articlesIn addition to original research papers, we will accept other features such as meta-analysis.Length not stated
- research scopingResearch scoping, innovative and provocative commentaries, thinking pieces, or conceptual papers stimulating timely debate around leadership and policy or ecolo…Length not stated
- thinking piecesResearch scoping, innovative and provocative commentaries, thinking pieces, or conceptual papers stimulating timely debate around leadership and policy or ecolo…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship
Main text approximately 8,000-10,000 words (max 12,000); online supplemental material has no word limit. Model summary
The main text should be approximately 8,000-10,000 words (max 12,000), but online supplemental material has no word limit.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
Leadership and Policy in Schools 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 discoverab…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Double anonymized peer review with initial editor screening and three anonymous referees. Model summary
All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous, double anonymized peer review based on an initial editor screening followed by anonymous refereeing by three 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
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 1570-0763
- Electronic ISSN
- 1744-5043
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 25, Issue 3 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Leadership and Policy in Schools
What CAS zone is Leadership and Policy in Schools in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Leadership and Policy in Schools is in Zone 4 of Education, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Education & Educational Research. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Education. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Leadership and Policy in Schools?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1.4 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 4.8, h-index 58.
How long does peer review take at Leadership and Policy in Schools?
The publisher reports about 66 days (first decision after review); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 35%. 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 Leadership and Policy in Schools 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 Education.
What are the manuscript requirements of Leadership and Policy in Schools?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 12,000 words; 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Leadership and Policy in Schools based?
Of the 39 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (31), Hong Kong, China (4) and United Kingdom (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Leadership and Policy in Schools?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Leadership and Policy in Schools is indexed in ESCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists PubMed and ERIC; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Leadership and Policy in Schools open access, and what is the APC?
Leadership and Policy in Schools 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: .