Journal profile · Multiple
Semantics & Pragmatics
ISSN 1937-8912 · Linguistic Society of America · United States
Semantics & Pragmatics: CAS Zone 1 · Literature (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 50 weeks (community reports); acceptance rate 15% (journal website); 11 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Semantics & Pragmatics is published by Linguistic Society of America and is in Zone 1 of Literature in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation, Natural Language Processing Techniques and Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies, together about 45.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Artificial Intelligence. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Semantics and Pragmatics (S&P) is published by the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). It is a fully open-access peer-reviewed journal publishing high quality, original, self-contained research articles on the semantics and pragmatics of natural languages. In 2013, in its sixth year of publication, Semantics & Pragmatics became one of only two full journals of the LSA, alongside the society’s flagship journal, Language. There are no publication fees of any kind for publication in S&P: no article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges. While the core target audience of Semantics & Pragmatics is academic linguists, we also publish material by, or of relevance to, philosophers, psychologists, and computer scientists. Papers must include new results of interest to those working in semantics and pragmatics, and must demonstrate clear significance for theoretical development of those areas. Provided the work meets those criteria, we welcome both submissions of papers on core topics in semantics and pragmatics, and submissions of interdisciplinary papers involving work on syntax, phonology, psycho-linguistics, text and corpus studies, discourse and conversation analysis, computational semantics, the lexicon, historical linguistics, cross-linguistic typology, logic, and philosophy of language. Our pilot issue (Vol. 0, 2007) contained an inaugural editorial explaining the concepts behind the journal. We do not require any particular format for initial submissions (except requiring that the submission be a pdf file). See the Submission Guidelines for more details. Once your paper is accepted, it will be typeset in LaTeX in S&P's house style. While we do not require final submission in LaTeX format, we do strongly encourage authors to submit in LaTeX and furthermore to use our LaTeX package. We do provide typesetting services for authors of accepted articles that are not in LaTeX format. However, as explained here, Word submissions will take much longer to reach the publication stage. To stay in touch with the journal, there is an RSS newsfeed that you can subscribe to with your favorite newsreader, the LSA's Facebook page, the LSA on Bluesky, and our editors' blog. We would be grateful for any comments and feedback on the journal and this website. You can send us email or visit our editors' blog and leave a comment there.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Editor-in-chief Louise McNallyPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 10, Germany 2, Spain 2, United Kingdom 1, France 1 (20 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic VariationArts and Humanities22.9%
- Natural Language Processing TechniquesComputer Science14.5%
- Language, Discourse, Communication StrategiesArts and Humanities8.2%
- Logic, Reasoning, and KnowledgeComputer Science7.5%
- Linguistics and Discourse AnalysisArts and Humanities6%
- Philosophy and Theoretical SciencePsychology5.5%
- Epistemology, Ethics, and MetaphysicsArts and Humanities5.1%
- Advanced Algebra and LogicComputer Science3.6%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Literature Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Language & Linguistics | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Linguistics | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Literature Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Linguistics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Language & Linguistics | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIDOAJLetPub
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
- h-index
- 55OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 131OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.69OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 9.1%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 96.67%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 9LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 253 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 13 | 13 | 0 |
| 2025 | 11 | 11 | 2 |
| 2024 | 15 | 15 | 25 |
| 2023 | 8 | 8 | 31 |
| 2022 | 15 | 15 | 101 |
| 2021 | 13 | 13 | 174 |
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 50 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 15%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 70 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 50 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
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)
What to prepare1 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 17,000 words
Article types accepted1, with length limits
- main articlesMain articles have an upper length limit of 17000 words, including everything (abstract, main text, footnotes, any appendices) except the list of references.main text ≤ 17,000 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websitePublication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Publication ethics Publication Ethics
Semantics & Pragmatics, as a journal of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), adheres to the LSA's Guidelines on Ethics for LSA Publications and Conferences.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Linguistic Society of America Creative Commons Attribution License
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access Policy
Open access under CC-BY license; authors retain copyright. Model summary
Semantics and Pragmatics is a fully open access journal. All content is freely and immediately accessible to readers under a liberal CC-BY license. The journal is supported by the Linguistic Society of America, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas. Authors do not pay publication charges (APCs) nor submission charges. Authors retain full copyright and all rights of…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review Process
Double-anonymous review policy for all contributed submissions since January 2021. Model summary
Submissions to S&P undergo rigorous peer review. The annual acceptance rate is consistently under 15%. The editors act as a first stage filter on papers, normally within a week of receipt. If a paper is determined to be of potential relevance, it will be sent to at least two reviewers drawn from our Editorial Board. The Editorial Board consists primarily of PhD-holding academics active in the subf…
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
- Linguistic Society of America
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1937-8912
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 19 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Semantics & Pragmatics
What CAS zone is Semantics & Pragmatics in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Semantics & Pragmatics is in Zone 1 of Literature, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Language & Linguistics / Linguistics; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Literature. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
How long does peer review take at Semantics & Pragmatics?
Authors report an average review time of about 50 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 15%. 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Semantics & Pragmatics based?
Of the 20 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (10), Germany (2) and Spain (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Semantics & Pragmatics?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Semantics & Pragmatics is indexed in ESCI and DOAJ.
Is Semantics & Pragmatics open access, and what is the APC?
Semantics & Pragmatics 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, 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .