Journal profile · GEOGRAPHY
Progress in Human Geography
ISSN 0309-1325 · eISSN 1477-0288 · SAGE
Progress in Human Geography: CAS Zone 1 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 6.89; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,900; review about 169 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 44.8% (journal website); 56 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Progress in Human Geography is published by SAGE and is in Zone 1 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Historical Geography and Geographical Thought, Rural development and sustainability and Geographies of human-animal interactions, together about 30% of its articles. Its main subfields are Geography, Planning and Development and Urban Studies. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Progress in Human Geography is the peer-review journal of choice for those wanting to know about the state of the art in all areas of human geography research - philosophical, theoretical, thematic, methodological or empirical. Concerned primarily with critical reviews of current research, PiHG enables a space for debate about questions, concepts and … | View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): GEOGRAPHY
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 2%); most named United Kingdom 17, United States 4, Australia 4, Switzerland 3, Germany 2 (42 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Historical Geography and Geographical ThoughtSocial Sciences10.9%
- Rural development and sustainabilityAgricultural and Biological Sciences9.8%
- Geographies of human-animal interactionsSocial Sciences9.3%
- Urban Planning and GovernanceSocial Sciences8.5%
- Urbanization and City PlanningSocial Sciences6.7%
- Geographic Information Systems StudiesSocial Sciences5.6%
- Housing, Finance, and NeoliberalismEconomics, Econometrics and Finance5.5%
- Geography Education and PedagogySocial Sciences4.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Geography | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Geography | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Geography | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
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
- Impact factor
- 6.89LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 9.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 14.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 3.28LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 4.03LetPub ·
- h-index
- 223OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,752OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 6.4OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 7.1%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 68.94%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 55LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 4,896 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 50 | 36 | 26 |
| 2025 | 56 | 46 | 270 |
| 2024 | 49 | 40 | 696 |
| 2023 | 62 | 46 | 1,509 |
| 2022 | 63 | 39 | 2,361 |
| 2021 | 64 | 39 | 2,806 |
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 PubMed · to
Too few articlesOnly 5 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)
- 44.8%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 3 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 74 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 169 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 24 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,900 / GBP 2,859 | — | — | |
| 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 prepare7 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- Harvard
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
- Not considered
- empirical work; detailed cases
Article types accepted1
- reviewPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. In preparing a paper for submission to PiHG, you should no…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
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
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. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, fees to be determined at production stage Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can pub…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency:Double anonymised 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
- ISSN
- 0309-1325
- Electronic ISSN
- 1477-0288
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Progress in Human Geography
What CAS zone is Progress in Human Geography in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Progress in Human Geography is in Zone 1 of Sociology, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Geography; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Progress in Human Geography?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 6.89; CiteScore 14.9, h-index 223.
How long does peer review take at Progress in Human Geography?
The publisher reports about 169 days (submission to acceptance); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 44.8%. 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 Progress in Human Geography?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: Harvard; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; 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 Progress in Human Geography based?
Of the 42 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 2%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (17), United States (4) and Australia (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Progress in Human Geography?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Progress in Human Geography is indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Is Progress in Human Geography open access, and what is the APC?
Progress in Human Geography is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,900.
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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .