Journal profile · Arts and Humanities-Music
Music Science
ISSN 2059-2043 · SAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
Music Science: fully open access; APC about USD 854; review about 202 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 40.8% (journal website); 54 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Music Science is published by SAGE Publishing. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Neuroscience and Music Perception, Diverse Music Education Insights and Music Therapy and Health, together about 48% of its articles. Its main subfields are Music. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Music & Science is a peer-reviewed open access online journal published by SAGE in association with SEMPRE. Our point of departure is the idea that science—or, more accurately, the sciences—can help us to make sense of music and its significance in our lives. Music exists in complex and diverse forms across historical time and within and across different societies; music is indisputably a cultural phenomenon but our musicality is grounded in our biology; we need to draw on the sciences to address music's biological materiality, but we must also be attuned to the distinctive functional and discursive properties that are embodied in different cultures' musics.Hence the need for this journal, which is intended to provide a peer-reviewed platform for researchers to communicate important new insights in music research from the full spectrum of relevant scientific and scholarly perspectives to the widest possible audience. We aim to publish research across the field of music and science as broadly conceived, encompassing studies in cognition, neuroscience and psychoacoustics; development and education; philosophy and aesthetics; ethnomusicology and music sociology; archaeology and ethology; music theory, analysis and historical studies; performance science and practice-based research; computational approaches and studies in digital culture; acoustics, sound studies, and soundscape studies; music therapy; and clinical implications and approaches, including psychoneuroimmunology, health and well-being. Our goal is to be truly interdisciplinary: to give researchers from the many different scientific traditions that have been applied to music the opportunity to communicate with—and to learn from—each other, while encouraging dialogue with music scholars whose work is situated in artistic, performative or humanistic domains. In short, we aim to publish research from any discipline or perspective that can illuminate—or that can be illuminated by—scientific approaches to understanding music.This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).Article processing charge (APC)The APC for Music & Science is currently $1450. The APC is based on the date of original peer review submission. The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that published articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.If you do not have grant funding to cover the APC costs, or genuinely cannot raise the funds to cover the Article Processing Charge (APC) then the corresponding author should submit a discount request to SAGE, by emailing apcqueries@sagepub.com when payment is requested. More information can be found here: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/gold-open-access-article-processing-charge-waivers.A 50% discount on the prevailing APC rate is available to all members of SEMPRE.The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mns.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Arts and Humanities-Music
Editor-in-chief Ian CrossPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United Kingdom 18, Germany 4, United States 2, Canada 2, Denmark 2 (35 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Neuroscience and Music PerceptionNeuroscience23.2%
- Diverse Music Education InsightsArts and Humanities12.6%
- Music Therapy and HealthPsychology12.2%
- Musicology and Musical AnalysisArts and Humanities10.6%
- Music Technology and Sound StudiesComputer Science10.3%
- Music and Audio ProcessingComputer Science4.3%
- Music Education and AnalysisSocial Sciences3.6%
- Music History and CultureArts and Humanities3.4%
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.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Q1 | 10/196 | 95th |
| History and Philosophy of Science | Q1 | 31/254 | 87th |
| Psychology (miscellaneous) | Q2 | 45/118 | 62nd |
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
- 2.7LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.56LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.17LetPub ·
- h-index
- 28OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 113OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.24OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 393 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 46 | 46 | 682 |
| 2025 | 54 | 54 | 833 |
| 2024 | 57 | 57 | 663 |
| 2023 | 63 | 63 | 457 |
| 2022 | 32 | 32 | 480 |
| 2021 | 44 | 44 | 332 |
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
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
202 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 10 weeks
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 10 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 40.8%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 202 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 50 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 10 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
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 854 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 854 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 854 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 1,450 | — | — |
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 prepare8 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 300 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 7,500 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted10
- commentaryView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Music & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discuss…Length not stated
- discussionsMusic & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field …Length not stated
- letters to the editorView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Music & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discuss…Length not stated
- news itemsThe journal will also accept news items which are of core interest to the Music & Science community, at their sole discretion.Length not stated
- position papersMusic & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field …Length not stated
- research articleView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Music & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discuss…Length not stated
- research articlesMusic & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field …Length not stated
- reviewView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Music & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discuss…Length not stated
- reviewsMusic & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field …Length not stated
- theoretical critical papersMusic & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field …Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
Research data sharing policy Model summary
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
COPE member Model summary
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. You can find information on what to say in your ethical statements as well as example statements on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page. All papers r…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright
Creative Commons license Model summary
All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Music & Science is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing, paid by the funder, i…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency:Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk reject…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
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
- SAGE Publishing
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2059-2043
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Music Science
How long does peer review take at Music Science?
The publisher reports about 202 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 10 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 40.8%. 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 Music Science?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 300 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 7,500 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: 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 Music Science based?
Of the 35 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (18), Germany (4) and United States (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Music Science?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Music Science is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Music Science open access, and what is the APC?
Music Science is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 854.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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: .