Souls

Souls 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 Race, History, and American Society, Caribbean history, culture, and politics and Music History and Culture, together about 48.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Souls is a quarterly interdisciplinary journal founded in 1999 and published by Taylor & Francis. It is housed in the Department of African American Studies of the University of Illinois at Chicago and edited by historian and activist Barbara Ransby. The journal was inspired by two academic publication projects initiated by W. E. B. Du Bois: The Atlanta University Series of annual research readers published in the late 19th-early 20th century; and Phylon journal, founded by Du Bois at Atlanta University in 1940. Its strategic objective is to use Du Boisian social and political theory as a starting point for examining the radical potential of the field of African-American Studies. The journal explores the intellectual debates that are central to the work of scholars and activists, challenging our understanding of history, politics, social theory, and culture in ways that create new possibilities for a democratic praxis and pursuit of social justice. Produced in the spirit of the intellectual activism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Souls presents creative and challenging interpretations of the key issues now being confronted by scholars of modern black diaspora. The Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) was established in 1971 in response to strong faculty, student and community demand that UIC become more open and accessible to the diverse citizens in Chicago. The department provides an interdisciplinary curriculum to undergraduate majors and minors and its award-winning faculty members offer coursework in sociology, political science, history, English, and psychology. With its urban location and commitment to community engagement, the African American Studies department offers an exciting opportunity for all students interested in examining the experiences of black communities in the US, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Journal Mailing Address: Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Department of African American Studies (MC 069), University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S. Morgan, Chicago, IL 60607. Peer Review Policy: All research articles in this journal have undergone editorial screening and peer review. Sorry, there are currently no metrics available for this journal.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): ETHNIC STUDIES

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 3, Canada 1 (4 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-30

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

ScopusLetPub

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

Indexing the journal's website claims

Web of SciencePublisher website

Other: ProQuest, OCLC, International Index to Black Periodicals, Current Content, EBSCOhost, OCLC Sociological Abstracts (Online)

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

0.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore 2026-06

1.1LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR 2026-06

0.15LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

0LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

34OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

123OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

0OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Share of gold OA articles

0%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

4LetPub · 2026-09-13

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.

No source has fee information yet; check the journal's website.

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

1099-9949

Electronic ISSN

1548-3843

Society / sponsor

Columbia University

Latest issue on the website

Volume 24, Issue 3-4 (2023)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗LetPub
• Special issues ↗Publisher website