Safundi

Safundi is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 4 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are South African History and Culture, African history and culture studies and Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies, together about 47.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Safundi is a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal that addresses southern Africa and its transnational relationships to other parts of the world. Past contributors to Safundi include noted writers and intellectuals like Chris Abani, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Mark Behr, Noam Chomsky, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. Originally founded as a venue for analyses of the United States and South Africa from a comparative perspective, the title derives from the initial letters of South Africa and America and the word fundi, which comes from the isiXhosa verb - funda, which translates as “to read” or “to learn.” The journal remains committed to publishing work on South Africa and the United States, while also expanding its scope to include the whole of southern Africa and its historical, cultural, and political connections to the Global North and the Global South. The appropriateness of submissions to the journal are ultimately at the discretion of the Editors. We encourage interdisciplinary perspectives, and we seek submissions from a range of academic fields, including anthropology, literature, political studies, human/cultural geography, history, communications, sociology, art history, visual cultures, and film. While seeking to be inclusive, the journal does not consider papers in certain specialized areas for which other outlets may be more appropriate, including quantitative economics and quantitative development studies. Authors who are unsure whether Safundi is an appropriate journal for their work are welcome to contact one of the editors for informal discussion and guidance prior to submission. Research articles are the mainstay of Safundi, though the Editors invite submissions of review articles, interviews, political briefings, cultural briefings, roundtable discussions, visual essays and personal essays informed by scholarship. We invite special issue proposals that meet the aims and scope of the journal. “Many of the essays in Safundi draw illuminating comparisons and contrasts between how race is represented in South Africa and the United States." - Paul Giles & R.J. Ellis, American Quarterly “An indispensable academic resource for their pursuit of insightful contribution to this topic.” - T. Tantelinirina, American Studies International “ Safundi has produced some remarkable pioneering essays in its comparative field...” - Paul Giles, Comparative American Studies Peer Review Statement All research articles and essa

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): AREA STUDIES

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 5, Canada 1, Netherlands 1 (7 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

ESCIScopusLetPub

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

Indexing the journal's website claims

MLA BibliographyPublisher 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.

Impact

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

0.3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

0.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

0.3LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

0.3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

0.1LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

0.1Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SNIP 2026-06

0.24LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

0.24Publisher website · 2026-09-29

h-index

23OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

84OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

0.2OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

33.3%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

8.45%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

29LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

46,000Publisher website · 2026-09-29

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.

Figures by source

Acceptance rate (publisher)

67%Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Submission to first decision

33 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Acceptance to publication

49 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

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

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

1753-3171

Electronic ISSN

1543-1304

Latest issue on the website

Volume 27, Issue 2 (2026)

Official links

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