Journal profile
Witness
ISSN 2291-5796 · York University Libraries · Canada
Witness: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 20 weeks (community reports); 11 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Witness is published by York University Libraries. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Nursing Education, Practice, and Leadership, Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights and Cultural Competency in Health Care, together about 40.7% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science and General Health Professions. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Envisioned for a decade, conceptualized in 2013, and launched in 2018, Witness is a Canadian online open access scholarly nursing journal. Together, contributors and readers form a collective of nurses whose practice, research, teaching, and way of being are rooted in social justice. There is a rich history of critical discourse and practice in Canada: Discourse and practice gleaned from what Canadian nurses witness regarding health, health care and the quality of life of individuals, groups and populations. The time has come to formalize a Canadian-based scholarly space for critical nursing discourse that is rooted in such ideas as social justice, intersectionality, advocacy and critical social theory .... to name but a few. Witness is a collective of critical nurses in Canada and beyond who strive to ameliorate inequities in the health and quality of life of all. By virtue of the nurse’s privileged societal position, we witness a wide array of inequities that require us to take action. Witness is a collective of critical nurses in Canada and beyond who strive to ameliorate inequities in the health and quality of life of all. Indeed, our tag line represents the ethos of the journal: SEE it .... SPEAK it.... WRITE it.... CHANGE it. SCOPE. The journal is rooted in critical discourse, where the term ‘critical’ refers to a capacity to inquire ‘against the grain.’ It involves a persistent sense of perturbation with the status quo. This is a disposition that involves questioning claims of truth or falsity, charging the thinker with the task of disrupting and destabilizing epistemological certainties, including one’s very own. ‘Critical’ is about recognizing dominant political, economic, and social forces–and interrogating how these influence ways of knowing, the very production of knowledge, and systemic inequities. As both a stance and an action, it is a commitment to the decolonization of knowledge by an analysis of both dominant discourses and oppressive practices. Moreover, ‘critical’ is about a necessity to surface assumptions and tensions in our own and others’ works and practices. It encompasses an unyielding commitment to interrogate the relation of power to knowledge with an understanding that individuals, groups, and systems may–intentionally or unintentionally–reproduce such relations. For Witness, it is a salient attribute that welcomes, and is strengthened by, an openness to perspectival plurality. AIMS. Witness seeks to foster and disseminate crit
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Nursing Education, Practice, and LeadershipNursing20.1%
- Indigenous Health, Education, and RightsSocial Sciences11.1%
- Cultural Competency in Health CareSocial Sciences9.5%
- Ethics in medical practiceHealth Professions9%
- Nursing education and managementNursing8.5%
- Feminism, Gender, and IntersectionalitySocial Sciences3.2%
- Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchSocial Sciences2.7%
- Climate Change and Health ImpactsEnvironmental Science2.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
DOAJLetPub
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- h-index
- 11OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 11OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.43OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 94 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 4 | 4 | 45 |
| 2025 | 11 | 11 | 64 |
| 2024 | 6 | 6 | 76 |
| 2023 | 8 | 8 | 85 |
| 2022 | 10 | 10 | 66 |
| 2021 | 18 | 18 | 39 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 20 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 20 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY-NC | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — |
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)
Article types accepted2
- arts-based submissionsProspective authors are invited to connect with the editor prior to submission. Arts-based submissions must be accompanied by a scholarly explanation of the wor…Length not stated
- letter to the editorLetters to the Editor shall be screened for relevance, fit, and professionalism. A decision shall be made regarding their suitedness to the journal in a discuss…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism
- AI use
AI tools cannot be credited with authorship; use must be described and cited. Model summary
AI-In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools, Large Language Models cannot be credited with authorship as they are incapable of conceptualising a research design without human direction and cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and validity of the published work.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Authorship Requirements
Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the preparation of the manuscript to a significant extent. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) guides our requirements surrounding ethical authorship. That is Witness…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest
Conflict of interest disclosure required from all authors. Model summary
The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics
REB ethics approval must be submitted with the manuscript. Model summary
REB- A copy of ethics approval from the relevant university's REB is compulsory and must be submitted WITH the manuscript at the time of submission.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Witness publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). Read the license terms at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. The author(s) retain copyright to their works.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access OPEN ACCESS POLICY
CC BY-NC 4.0 license; authors retain copyright. Model summary
Witness provides open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge and equitable educational practices. For more information on this approach, see the Public Knowledge Project, which has designed this system to improve the scholarly and public quality of research, and which freely distributes the journal …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Initial editorial screening plus plagiarism check via iThenticate. Model summary
All submissions will be initially screened by the managing editors for basic fitness to the scope and theme of the journal and adherence to the journal's submission guidelines. Further, upon submission all manuscripts will be sent through an online plagiarism checker called ithenticate. The Editor/Guest Editor may consult with the prospective author with feedback so as to ensure fit with the criti…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism
Originality requirements for submitted manuscripts. Model summary
Manuscripts that are submitted to Witness must meet the following originality requirments:
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
- York University Libraries
- Country or region
- Canada
- Language
- English, French
- ISSN
- 2291-5796
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 8, Issue 1 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Witness
How long does peer review take at Witness?
Authors report an average review time of about 20 weeks. 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.
Which databases index Witness?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Witness is indexed in DOAJ.
Is Witness open access, and what is the APC?
Witness is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; 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: .