Journal profile
Papers in Historical Phonology
ISSN 2399-6714 · University of Edinburgh · United Kingdom
Papers in Historical Phonology: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 12 weeks (community reports); 0 articles in 2025.
The latest issue on the journal's website is from 2023 (Volume 8): the journal may have stopped publishing or moved platform in the last two years. Check its website before submitting.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Papers in Historical Phonology is published by University of Edinburgh. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Linguistics and language evolution, Phonetics and Phonology Research and Historical Linguistics and Language Studies, together about 73.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Language and Linguistics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
PiHPh welcomes submissions from all areas of historical phonology, and actively seeks to bring together work from distinct linguistic subfields which may not normally communicate with one another. The definition of 'historical phonology' that PiHPh adopts is set out in the Preface to PiHPh, which was published in the first issue. This definition is broad, taking in all areas of linguistics which link the study of sound systems to the past in any way. It is concerned both with how and why the phonology of languages changes in diachrony, and with the reconstruction of past synchronic phonological states. It is also concerned with the patterns of contemporary variation in phonology, in order to understand how change is implemented. Historical phonology is thus an inherently inter(sub)disciplinary enterprise — no one approach can hope to understand it fully. We need to combine insights from theoretical phonology, phonetics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, philology, language acquisition, and, no doubt, other areas. We need to interact with the traditions of scholarship that have grown up around individual languages and language families, and with disciplines like history, sociology and palaeography. The kinds of questions that PiHPh wants to ask therefore include at least the following: Which changes are possible in phonology? What is the precise patterning of particular changes in the history of specific languages? How do changes arise and spread through communities? Are there characteristics that phonological changes (or particular types of changes) always show? What counts as evidence for change, or for the reconstruction of previous stages of languages’ phonologies? What kinds of factors can motivate or constrain change? Are there factors which lead to stability in language, and militate against change? To what extent is phonological change independent of changes that occur at other levels of the grammar, such as morphology, syntax or semantics? What is the relationship between the study of completed phonological changes and of variation and change in progress? What is the relationship between phonological change and (first and second) language acquisition? What types of units and domains, at both segmental and prosodic levels, do we need in order to capture phonological change? How can the results of historical phonology inform phonological theorising? How does phonologisation proceed — how do non-phonological pressures come to be reflected in phonology?
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Linguistics and language evolutionArts and Humanities32.7%
- Phonetics and Phonology ResearchPsychology29%
- Historical Linguistics and Language StudiesArts and Humanities11.7%
- Linguistic Variation and MorphologySocial Sciences8%
- Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic VariationArts and Humanities7.4%
- Language, Linguistics, Cultural AnalysisArts and Humanities1.9%
- Language and cultural evolutionSocial Sciences1.2%
- Spanish Linguistics and Language StudiesArts and Humanities1.2%
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.
Database indexing
DOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
ERIH PLUSPublisher website
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
- h-index
- 11OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 13OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 62 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 | 0 | 54 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 | 57 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 194 |
| 2023 | 3 | 3 | 49 |
| 2022 | 6 | 6 | 77 |
| 2021 | 6 | 6 | 60 |
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 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 12 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Editorial review, Post-publication 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 | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
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)
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright
- License & copyright
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated Model summary
All material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated.
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 Edinburgh
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2399-6714
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 8 (2023)
- Official links
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Papers in Historical Phonology
How long does peer review take at Papers in Historical Phonology?
Authors report an average review time of about 12 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.
Which databases index Papers in Historical Phonology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Papers in Historical Phonology is indexed in DOAJ. The journal's website also lists ERIH PLUS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Papers in Historical Phonology open access, and what is the APC?
Papers in Historical Phonology 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .