Small Wars and Insurgencies

Small Wars and Insurgencies is published by Taylor & Francis 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 Military History and Strategy, Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East and Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence, together about 35.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Political Science and International Relations and Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Small Wars & Insurgencies provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the academic and scholarly discussion of the historical, political, social, economic and psychological aspects of insurgency, counter-insurgency, limited war and irregular warfare. Peer-reviewed and long-established, Small Wars & Insurgencies invites papers concerned with, but not limited to, the following areas: insurgencies and guerrilla conflicts past and present counterinsurgencies including national doctrines terrorist movements and ideologies irregular warfare and the debates on its historiography peacekeeping and “humanitarian intervention”. Essential reading, Small Wars & Insurgencies facilitates the discussion of historians, political scientists and students of International Relations and Security Studies on theoretical and practical issues related to the past, present and future of this critical area of both international and domestic politics. The journal is historically focused and is keen to see contributions from scholars using primary and archival sources, as well as interviews. It also welcomes contributions investigating media, literary and cinema representations of insurgencies, counter-insurgencies and irregular warfare. Most issues include an authoritative review section, and the journal’s policy is to have 2–3 special issues each year devoted to specific themes and issues, often edited by guest editors. Peer Review: All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, research articles are then subject to peer review by two or more independent, anonymous expert referees. The journal has a policy of inviting up to four special issues per year. Articles will be reviewed by the journal editor and the guest editor as well as a single expert referee for all items in special issues. Review essays, book reviews, as well as state-of-the field papers, are generally reviewed by the journal editor only. All peer reviews are single anonymized and submission is online via ScholarOne Manuscripts.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Editor-in-chief Paul B. RichPublisher website

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 13, United Kingdom 6, India 2, France 2, Norway 1 (27 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• CiteScore Q2 · 2025

Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website

Database indexing

ESCIScopusLetPub

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

Indexing the journal's website claims

Periodicals Content IndexPublisher 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

1.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

1.3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

3LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

0.73LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

0.73Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SNIP 2026-06

1.36LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

1.36Publisher website · 2026-09-29

h-index

51OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

416OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

1.09OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

28.6%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

15.38%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

81LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

255,000Publisher 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.

Other sources

Acceptance rate (publisher)

35%Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Submission to first decision

11 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

First decision after review

34 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Acceptance to publication

13 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Peer review

Single 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

0959-2318

Electronic ISSN

1743-9558

Latest issue on the website

Volume 37, Issue 6 (2026)

Official links

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