Journal profile · POLITICAL SCIENCE
Research & Politics
ISSN 2053-1680 · SAGE · United States
Research & Politics: CAS Zone 3 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.71; fully open access; APC about USD 800; review about 176 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 16.9% (journal website); 54 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Research & Politics is published by SAGE and is in Zone 3 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Electoral Systems and Political Participation, Social Media and Politics and Political Conflict and Governance, together about 40.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science and Political Science and International Relations. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Research & Politics (RAP) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal, which focusses on research in political science and related fields through open access publication of the very best cutting-edge research and policy analysis. 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): POLITICAL SCIENCE
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 54, United Kingdom 14, Netherlands 6, Germany 5, Canada 4 (96 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Electoral Systems and Political ParticipationSocial Sciences24%
- Social Media and PoliticsSocial Sciences9.4%
- Political Conflict and GovernanceSocial Sciences7.2%
- Media Influence and PoliticsSocial Sciences6.2%
- Social and Intergroup PsychologySocial Sciences5.6%
- Populism, Right-Wing MovementsSocial Sciences5.1%
- Gender Politics and RepresentationSocial Sciences5%
- Political Influence and Corporate StrategiesBusiness, Management and Accounting3.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Political Science | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Political Science | Zone 3 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Political Science | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- 3.71LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 4.7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 6.5Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.47LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.27LetPub ·
- h-index
- 59OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 285OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.34OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 46.8%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 52LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 610 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 30 | 30 | 2 |
| 2025 | 54 | 54 | 132 |
| 2024 | 59 | 59 | 344 |
| 2023 | 58 | 58 | 519 |
| 2022 | 43 | 43 | 451 |
| 2021 | 43 | 43 | 852 |
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
176 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 12 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 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 16.9%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 14 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 176 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 44 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 12 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 800 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 800 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 800 | 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 prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 4,000 words
- Reference style
- Harvard
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
Article types accepted5
- original researchPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Research & Politics strongly encourages replication studie…Length not stated
- replication studies3.2 Replication studies In case of replication studies, Research & Politics invites authors to consider submitting a paper that is along the lines of one or mor…Length not stated
- research articlePlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Research & Politics strongly encourages replication studie…Length not stated
- research articles3.1 Research Articles The journal encourages short articles. Articles should normally not exceed 4,000 words including notes and references but excluding figure…Length not stated
- reviewPlease visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts. Research & Politics strongly encourages replication studie…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, 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
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. As a condition of publication authors are required to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data availability statement. This sho…
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
Research & Politics 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 funde…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
To ensure fair and anonymous peer review, your manuscript must be fully anonymized. 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
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2053-1680
- 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 Research & Politics
What CAS zone is Research & Politics in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Research & Politics is in Zone 3 of Sociology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Political Science. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Research & Politics?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.71; CiteScore 3.2, h-index 59.
How long does peer review take at Research & Politics?
The publisher reports about 176 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 12 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 16.9%. 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 Research & Politics?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 4,000 words; Reference style: Harvard; Templates: LaTeX and Word; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Graphical abstract: Optional. 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 Research & Politics based?
Of the 96 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (54), United Kingdom (14) and Netherlands (6). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Research & Politics?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Research & Politics is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Research & Politics open access, and what is the APC?
Research & Politics is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 800.
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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .