Theory and Practice of Legislation

Theory and Practice of Legislation 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 Judicial and Constitutional Studies, European and International Law Studies and Legal Language and Interpretation, together about 40.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Law. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

The Theory and Practice of Legislation ( TPLeg) aims to offer an international and interdisciplinary forum for the examination of legislation. The main aim of the journal is to be the major international journal in the legal field dedicated to the theory, philosophy and practice of legislation (often referred to as "legislation studies," "legislative studies," "science of legislation," "legisprudence" or “nomography”). Indeed, TPLeg has been the highest ranked legislation journal in the world in the past three years, according to both Scopus and Scimago rankings of legal journals in 2023. At the same time, TPLeg also aims to be an interdisciplinary journal, and publishes high-quality articles by scholars in additional relevant disciplines, such as legislative studies and political science, public policy, regulation, governance, economics etc. The scope of the journal covers legislation in its broadest sense. Legislation is seen as both process and product, reflection of theoretical assumptions and a skill. This broad definition includes a broad spectrum of scholarship from the highly theoretical philosophical discussions of legislation to the highly practical scholarship, such as scholarship directed at instructing legislative drafters. It also covers both formal legislation and alternative forms of regulation, such as co-regulation, regulation by non-state actors, guidance, codes and directions from governments etc. Some examples of possible issues include drafting techniques; the introduction of open standards; evidence-based drafting and lawmaking; judicial review of legislation and legislative processes; pre- and post-legislative scrutiny for effectiveness and efficiency; the utility and necessity of codification; information technology, artificial intelligence and data science & legislation; the legitimacy of legislation in view of fundamental principles and rights; law and language; and the link between legislator and judge. Theoretical, comparative, empirical or interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. The focus is on legislation as a subject in its own right, rather than substantive areas of law that are covered by legislation. For example, we are interested in articles on how or why the law of evidence is codified into legislation, rather than the content of the legislation on evidence. Therefore, blackletter descriptions of positive law are outside the scope of the journal. The editors are mainly interested in articles that are relevant for a

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): LAW

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• JCR Q2 · best quartile · 2025
• CiteScore Q2 · 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

ESCIScopusLetPub

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

Indexing the journal's website claims

J-Gate, Scimago, Hein On-LinePublisher website

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 (publisher) 2025

1.2Publisher website · 2026-09-30

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

2Publisher website · 2026-09-30

CiteScore 2026-06

2.1LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

2.1Publisher website · 2026-09-30

SJR 2026-06

0.23LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

0.23Publisher website · 2026-09-30

SNIP 2026-06

0LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

24OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

52OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

1.67OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

16.7%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

20%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

16LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

65,000Publisher website · 2026-09-30

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

Acceptance rate (publisher)

27%Publisher website · 2026-09-30

Submission to first decision

11 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-30

First decision after review

137 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-30

Acceptance to publication

17 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-30

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

2050-8840

Electronic ISSN

2050-8859

Latest issue on the website

Volume 14, Issue 1 (2026)

Official links

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