Studies in Higher Education

Studies in Higher Education is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 2 of Education in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Higher Education Governance and Development, Evaluation of Teaching Practices and Higher Education and Employability, together about 35.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Studies in Higher Education is a leading international journal publishing research-based articles dealing with higher education issues from either a disciplinary or multi-disciplinary perspective. Empirical, theoretical, and conceptual articles of significant originality will be considered. Manuscripts are expected to be grounded in the higher education literature and contribute to it through substantive new empirical findings or novel insights. The Journal welcomes contributions that seek to enhance understanding of higher education policy, institutional management and performance, teaching and learning, and the contributions of higher education to society and the economy. Comparative studies and analysis of inter-system and cross-national issues are particularly welcomed, as are those addressing global and international themes. The Journal also annually publishes two special issues on topics of international significance to higher education. Please note that we do not publish the following: Studies not explicitly connected to the higher education literature “Rapid reviews” or “scoping reviews” that synthesize previous research without advancing novel arguments or generating significant theoretical insights Manuscripts focusing on narrow research questions within sub-specialties, demonstrating little connection to the broader scholarly and policy/practitioner debates in the field Conceptual pieces that fail to demonstrate in-depth engagement with relevant theoretical debates and traditions informing higher education studies, and that do not advance significantly novel arguments Policy reports or “think pieces” on higher education As interest in research on higher education has expanded internationally, SHE has experienced a remarkable growth in the number of submissions. As a result, our rejection rate is higher than we, reviewers, and most importantly authors would ideally like. To try and mitigate this we encourage prospective authors whose manuscripts deal with more circumscribed topics and issues of interest to a local or regional audience within a particular national context to consider a specialist journal which might be a more suitable outlet for their work. Peer review policy All relevant submissions will undergo rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and doubly-anonymised refereeing by at least two referees.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Education

Editor-in-chief Creso SáPublisher website

Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 14%); most named United Kingdom 2, Mainland China 1, Canada 1, Netherlands 1, Ireland 1 (7 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• JCR Q1 · best quartile · 2025
• CiteScore Q1 · 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

SSCIScopusLetPub

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

Indexing the journal's website claims

Web of ScienceERICERIH PLUSCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: ProQuest, Academic Search, Advanced Placement Source, ArticleFirst, Arts and Humanities Search, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, Australian Education Index (AEI), British Education Index, Current Abstracts, Education Research Complete, Education Research Index, Education Source, Educational Research Abstracts online (ERA), Educational Administration Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Electronic Collections Online, Higher Education Abstracts, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Professional Development Collection, Psychology & Behavioural Sciences Collection, Research into Higher Education Abstracts, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies, SocINDEX, Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts, Teacher Reference Center, VOCEDplus

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

4.82LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

4.9Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

5.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

11.4LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

11.4Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

1.99LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

1.99Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SNIP 2026-06

2.84LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

2.84Publisher website · 2026-09-29

h-index

192OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

2,407OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

7.58OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

6.1%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

30.43%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

195LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

1,500,000Publisher website · 2026-09-24

Downloads per year (publisher) 2024

1,500,000Publisher 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)

5%Publisher website · 2026-09-24

Acceptance rate (publisher) 2024

5%Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Submission to first decision

8 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

First decision after review

70 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Acceptance to publication

13 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Peer review

Double-anonymous peer reviewPublisher website · model-extracted

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

0307-5079

Electronic ISSN

1470-174X

Society / sponsor

Society for Research into Higher Education

Latest issue on the website

Volume 51, Issue 9 (2026)

Official links

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