Publius The Journal of Federalism

Publius The Journal of Federalism is published by Oxford University Press and is in Zone 2 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Political Systems and Governance, American Constitutional Law and Politics and Local Government Finance and Decentralization, together about 46.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Political Science and International Relations. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is the world's leading journal devoted to federalism. It is required reading for scholars of many disciplines who want the latest developments, trends, and empirical and theoretical work on federalism and intergovernmental relations. Publius is an international journal and is interested in publishing work on federalist systems throughout the world. Its goal is to publish the latest research from around the world on federalism theory and practice; the dynamics of federal systems; intergovernmental relations and administration; regional, state and provincial governance; and comparative federalism. Publius encourages submission of manuscripts from many disciplines and a variety of methodological approaches to the study of federalism. Federalism is a dynamic, timely topic in the world today, and the scholarship in Publius aims to reflect core debates underway with theoretical and analytical research and to analyze intergovernmental implications of policy changes. Young scholars are particularly encouraged to submit manuscripts. Publius was the pen name used by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in 1787-1788 when they published 85 articles entitled The Federalist in defense of the federal republic created by the new Constitution of the United States of America. It is an appropriate name for a journal devoted to the increase and diffusion of knowledge about federalism and intergovernmental relations. Publius: The Journal of Federalism was founded in 1973 by the late Daniel Elazar, a preeminent scholar of federalism. Publius is sponsored by the Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations of the American Political Science Association. Publius is published on behalf of CSF: Publius, Inc. housed at the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government at Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Special Issues of Publius: The Journal of Federalism Each year, Publius issues an annual review of American Federalism which highlights and analyzes federalism and intergovernmental issues in the preceding year. This issue is popular required reading for classes in federalism and intergovernmental relations. In addition, Publius publishes special issues on timely and significant events and trends. Journal metrics Citation metrics Clarivate 2025 Impact Factor 2.5 2025 5 Year Impact Factor 2.5 Political Science (Rank by Impact Factor) 77/332 2025 Cited Half-Life 11.5 years 2025 Immediacy Index 0.5 20

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): POLITICAL SCIENCE

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 30, Canada 5, Germany 2, United Kingdom 1, Australia 1 (43 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SSCIScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

Current ContentsPublisher website

Other: ProQuest, RePEc

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.

Impact

Impact factor

2.43LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

77Publisher website · 2026-10-01

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

2.5Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

3.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

3.5Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

0.78LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

1.43LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

75OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

780OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

1.47OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

24%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

31%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

44LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher) 2025

102,456Publisher website · 2026-10-01

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.

Submission to first decision 2025

44 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Acceptance to publication

35.5 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

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.

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.

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.

Publisher

Oxford University Press

ISSN

0048-5950

Electronic ISSN

1747-7107

Latest issue on the website

Volume 56, Issue 4 (2026)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Submission system ↗Publisher website
• Special issues ↗Publisher website