Journal profile · Multiple
Social Issues and Policy Review
ISSN 1751-2395 · eISSN 1751-2409 · Wiley-Blackwell
Social Issues and Policy Review: CAS Zone 1 · Psychology (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 5.56; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,800; median 334 days to acceptance (14 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 4% (journal website); 4 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Social Issues and Policy Review is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 1 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Social and Intergroup Psychology, Cultural Differences and Values and Gender Diversity and Inequality, together about 35.8% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The mission of Social Issues and Policy Review (SIPR) is to provide state of the art and timely theoretical and empirical reviews of topics and programs of research that are directly relevant to understanding and addressing social issues and public policy. SIPR, like other review volumes (e.g., Annual Review of Psychology and Advances in Experimental Social Psychology) is formally considered a periodical. Papers will be accessible and relevant to a broad audience and will normally be based on a program of research. Works in SIPR will represent perspectives directly relevant to the psychological study of social issues and public policy. Contributions are expected to be review papers that present a strong scholarly foundation and consider how research and theory can inform social issues and policy or articulate the implication of social issues and public policy for theory and research. Works may relate to controversial current issues, but they must be well grounded in theory and research, normally involving work in the behavioral sciences, and present fair and unbiased portrayals of the issues. SIPR is not limited to a particular point of view, political or social ideology, geographic area of focus, or disciplinary orientation. It encompasses areas of global concern. SIPR volumes are nonthematic; that is, the papers within each volume will focus on a variety of topics. SIPR is available as part of a subscription to SPSSI's flagship publication, Journal of Social Issues (JOSI), and also includes a subscription to Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (ASAP). Keywords SIPR, journal, social, issues, policy, public, review, policy review, journal, SIPR, social issues journal, public policy journal, psychology, research, psychological, studies, periodical, SPSSI, SPSSI journal Abstracting and Indexing Information Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Clarivate Analytics) ProQuest Sociology Collection (ProQuest) PsycINFO/Psychological Abstracts (APA) Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest) Social Sciences Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics) Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Social and Intergroup PsychologySocial Sciences21.5%
- Cultural Differences and ValuesPsychology7.3%
- Gender Diversity and InequalitySocial Sciences6.9%
- Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchSocial Sciences6.5%
- Behavioral Health and InterventionsPsychology5.4%
- Psychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentNeuroscience4.6%
- Health disparities and outcomesSocial Sciences4.2%
- Diverse Scientific and Economic StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance3.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Psychology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Psychology, Social | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Social Issues | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Psychology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Social Issues | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Psychology, Social | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Psychology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Psychology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Psychology, Social | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Social Issues | Zone 1 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePsycINFOCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: 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
- 5.56LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 5.6Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 15LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 15Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 15Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.27LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 3.13LetPub ·
- h-index
- 68OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 136OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.9OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 55%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 4LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 4Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 148,480Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 194 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 9 | 5 | 4 |
| 2025 | 4 | 3 | 30 |
| 2024 | 8 | 3 | 27 |
| 2023 | 15 | 8 | 203 |
| 2022 | 12 | 5 | 514 |
| 2021 | 6 | 2 | 327 |
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
334 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 135 days – 392 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 24 days (14 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 355 days
- Sample
- 14 articles with submission and acceptance dates (16 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)
- 4%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 4%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 25 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 25 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 243 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 21 daysPublisher 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 3,800 / EUR 3,170 / GBP 2,560 | — | — |
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.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare4 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 120–140 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Not considered
- full review paper without prior approval of review proposal
Article types accepted1
- review articlesSIPR is a journal for review articles that provide timely theoretical and empirical reviews of topics and programs of research that are directly relevant to add…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Peer review, Plagiarism
- Authorship Author contributions (CRediT)
This journal requires details of all authors’ contributions to the work by filling out CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy) information during submission.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Full Manuscript Submission and Peer Review Process
Participates in Wiley Refer & Transfer program Model summary
All submissions are invited by the Editors, following their prior approval of a submission proposal. Uninvited submissions will be declined for publication before peer review.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism
Uses iThenticate CrossCheck for plagiarism detection Model summary
This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts.
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
- 1751-2395
- Electronic ISSN
- 1751-2409
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 20, Issue 1 (December 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Social Issues and Policy Review
What CAS zone is Social Issues and Policy Review in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Social Issues and Policy Review is in Zone 1 of Psychology, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Psychology, Social / Social Issues; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Psychology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Social Issues and Policy Review?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 5.56; CiteScore 15, h-index 68.
How long does peer review take at Social Issues and Policy Review?
Based on the dates recorded on 14 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 334 days (interquartile range 135–392 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 4% (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 Issues and Policy Review?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 120–140 words; Reference style: Author–date; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not 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.
Which databases index Social Issues and Policy Review?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Social Issues and Policy Review is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, PsycINFO and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Social Issues and Policy Review open access, and what is the APC?
Social Issues and Policy Review is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,800.
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: .