Theoretical Computer Science

Theoretical Computer Science is published by Elsevier and is in Zone 4 of Computer Science in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are semigroups and automata theory, Logic, programming, and type systems and Algorithms and Data Compression, together about 26.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Computational Theory and Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Theoretical Computer Science is mathematical and abstract in spirit, but it derives its motivation from practical and everyday computation. Its aim is to understand the nature of computation and, as a consequence of this understanding, provide more efficient methodologies. All papers introducing or studying mathematical, logic and formal concepts and methods are welcome, provided that their motivation is clearly drawn from the field of computing.Any queries about submissions and peer review should be addressed to the TCS editorial office: [email protected].Papers published in Theoretical Computer Science are grouped in three sections according to their nature. The first section `Algorithms, automata, complexity and games' is devoted to the study of algorithms and their complexity using analytical, combinatorial or probabilistic methods. It includes the whole field of abstract complexity (i.e. all the results about the hierarchies that can be defined using Turing machines), the whole field of automata and language theory (including automata on infinite words and infinitary languages), the whole field of geometrical (graphic) applications and the whole field of measurement of system performance using statistical methods.The second section,`Logic, semantics and theory of programming', is devoted to formal methods to check properties of programs or implement formally described languages; it contains all papers dealing with semantics of sequential and parallel programming languages. All formal methods treating these problems are published in this section, including rewriting techniques, abstract data types, automatic theorem proving, calculi such as SCP or CCS, Petri nets, new logic calculi and developments in categorical methods.The third section, 'Natural Computing', is devoted to the study of computing occurring in nature and computing inspired by nature. In the rapidly evolving field of computer science, natural computing plays an important role as the catalyst for the synergy of human designed computing with the computing going on in nature. This synergy leads to a deeper and broader understanding of the nature of computation. Although natural computing is concerned also with experiments and applications, this section of Theoretical Computer Science is focused on the theoretical aspects of natural computing with clear relevance to computing. Among others, it will contain papers dealing with the theoretical issues in evolutionary computing, neural networks,

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Computer Science, Theory & Methods

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

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

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

1.06LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher)

1.1Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

2.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher)

2.5Publisher website · 2026-09-29

SJR 2026-06

0.44LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

0.99LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

105LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

209OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

7,237OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

0.98OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

9.1%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

28.05%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

352LetPub · 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.

Figures by source

Average review time (community reports)

about 4.5 monthsLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

EasyLetPub · 2026-09-13

Submission to first decision

11 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

First decision after review

154 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Submission to acceptance

282 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Acceptance to publication

6 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

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

Elsevier

Country or region

NETHERLANDS

Language

English

Frequency

Biweekly

Founded

1975

ISSN

0304-3975

Electronic ISSN

1879-2294

Official links

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