Journal profile · PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
Social Development
ISSN 0961-205X · eISSN 1467-9507 · Wiley-Blackwell
Social Development: CAS Zone 3 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.8; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,460; median 218 days to acceptance (77 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 18% (journal website); 78 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Social Development is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 3 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development, Early Childhood Education and Development and Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression, together about 45.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Social Psychology and Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Social Development is a major international journal that explores all aspects of social development in the early parts of the lifespan (generally infancy through adolescence) as seen from a psychological stance. We provide an outlet for innovative and high-quality empirical research, debates and comments on theoretical and empirical issues, and literature reviews. At Social Development we aim to foster a developmental science perspective. By this we mean a focus on the developmental processes that underlie the origins of, maintenance of, and change in social development, and we particularly support research (a) that considers the trajectory in development within the scope of where individuals have come from and where they are going, and (b) across systems, including cultural and historical influences, and within systems, including interrelations between social, cognitive, physiological systems. We are also interested in publishing research that informs both basic science and application, and that, in its conduct, scope, and implications, contributes to the intersection of developmental science and various forms of justice (including but not restricted to economic, social, racial, environmental, international justice). What Social Development publishes: Journal content includes, but is not restricted to, developmental questions pertaining to children’s and adolescents’ social cognition, emotion experience and understanding, peer and family relationships, social skills, and theories of mind. We welcome a variety of methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, archival, etc.). We also invite researchers to submit papers for review under our Methodology and Emergency Psychology calls for research, and the Quartet series (groupings of four papers that create a coherent story together). Social Development is essential reading for developmental psychologists, social psychologists, and all those concerned with research or teaching in the field of social development. What Social Development does not publish: Given Social Development’s focus on developmental processes, we generally do not accept papers that test for mediation using cross-sectional data. Additionally, most papers published in Social Development measure key developmental constructs using data from multiple reporters, multiple methods, or over time. We welcome papers applying network analytic techniques to networks where the nodes represent agents (e.g., people). However, we do not consider papers that ap
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
Editorial board by country: 5 in mainland China (about 7%); most named United States 35, United Kingdom 6, Mainland China 5, Netherlands 5, Germany 3 (70 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychology24.2%
- Early Childhood Education and DevelopmentSocial Sciences11.5%
- Bullying, Victimization, and AggressionPsychology9.5%
- Attachment and Relationship DynamicsPsychology8.2%
- Child and Animal Learning DevelopmentPsychology7.7%
- Social and Intergroup PsychologySocial Sciences4%
- Child Development and Digital TechnologySocial Sciences3.8%
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behaviorPsychology3.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Psychology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Psychology, Developmental | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PsycINFOCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 1.8LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 3.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 3.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.08LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.2LetPub ·
- h-index
- 145OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,117OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.53OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 53.45%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 56LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 69Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 283,335Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,863 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 55 | 37 | 16 |
| 2025 | 78 | 48 | 95 |
| 2024 | 65 | 45 | 192 |
| 2023 | 70 | 51 | 435 |
| 2022 | 83 | 45 | 790 |
| 2021 | 75 | 23 | 734 |
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
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
218 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 125 days – 271 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 19 days (77 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 239 days
- Sample
- 77 articles with submission and acceptance dates (139 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 18%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 18%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 235 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 19 daysPublisher website ·
- 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.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,460 / EUR 2,910 / GBP 2,310 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Page charges
- No page charges
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 prepare9 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 5
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,500 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted3
- editorialAll submissions will be refereed by at least two appropriate members of the social development community. The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality…Length not stated
- reviewAll manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout and may not exceed 8,500 words, including all text, tables, references, endnotes, footnotes and appendices, exc…Length not stated
- review articleReview ArticlesLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics
- AI use Disclosing the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
Upon submission, authors are required to provide an AI disclosure statement in their Title Page to indicate whether or not AI has been used to develop any portion of the manuscript. The following examples illustrate how you might disclose AI use in your statement:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Authorship
Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on eligibility for author listing.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the Conflict of Interest section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Sharing and Data Accessibility
The journal expects authors to archive all the data from which their published results are derived in a public repository. All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data. If authors have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed, and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI or an acce…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Publication Ethics
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read our Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.
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
- Wiley-Blackwell
- ISSN
- 0961-205X
- Electronic ISSN
- 1467-9507
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 35, Issue 4 (November 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Social Development
What CAS zone is Social Development in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Social Development is in Zone 3 of Psychology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Psychology, Developmental. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Social Development?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.8; CiteScore 3.7, h-index 145.
How long does peer review take at Social Development?
Based on the dates recorded on 77 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 218 days (interquartile range 125–271 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 18% (2025). 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 Social Development?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: ≥ 5; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,500 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Required; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. 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 Social Development based?
Of the 70 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 5 (about 7%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (35), United Kingdom (6) and Mainland China (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Social Development?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Social Development is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists PsycINFO and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Social Development open access, and what is the APC?
Social Development is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,460.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; 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: .