WORD-JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL LINGUISTIC ASSOCIATION

WORD-JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL LINGUISTIC ASSOCIATION is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 2 of Literature in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Linguistics and language evolution, Linguistic Variation and Morphology and Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation, together about 26.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Language and Linguistics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

WORD, a quarterly academic journal of linguistics published online and in print, is the publication of the International Linguistic Association (ILA). Founded in 1943 as the Linguistic Circle of New York, the association became one of the main sources of new ideas in American Linguistics at that time. Its journal WORD was founded in 1945 with a mission to disseminate the scholarly discussion of the day and to become the journal of record for general linguistics. During several decades of intellectual ferment in linguistics, the scholarship published by WORD continued to record the expansion of linguistic ideas — both theoretical and applied. Today, WORD continues its broadly-based mission to reflect and record contemporary linguistic scholarship. Over the years, WORD has been privileged to serve as a platform for introducing groundbreaking scholarship in linguistics. Among these, Jean Berko Gleason’s Wug test debuted in WORD in 1958 – “The Child’s Learning of English Morphology” (Volume 14, 1958); Charles Ferguson’s “Diglossia” was published in WORD (Volume 15, 1959); M.A.K. Halliday’s first journal paper on Systemic-Functional Linguistics – “Categories of the theory of grammar” – appeared in WORD (Volume 17, 1961); and William Labov’s very first journal article – “The social motivation of a sound change” – was in WORD (Volume 19, 1963). WORD adopts an eclectic approach to publishing scholarship in linguistics, welcoming original, interesting, and insightful contributions from the wide range of scholarship that is linguistics today. Each issue contains articles and reviews. Occasionally, special issues on specific topics are produced. Peer Review Policy: All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by at least two independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is double-anonymized and submission is online via Email to editorword@ilaword.org.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): LINGUISTICS

Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 5%); most named Canada 4, Australia 4, United States 3, Mainland China 1, Hong Kong, China 1 (19 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-30

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

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

1.1Publisher website · 2026-09-30

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

0.9Publisher website · 2026-09-30

CiteScore 2026-06

1.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

1.5Publisher website · 2026-09-30

SJR 2026-06

0.29LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

0.29Publisher website · 2026-09-30

SNIP 2026-06

1.32LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

1.32Publisher website · 2026-09-30

h-index

76OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

383OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

0.35OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

0%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

7.69%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

12LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

171,000Publisher 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.

Acceptance rate (publisher)

8%Publisher website · 2026-09-30

Submission to first decision

3 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-30

Peer review

Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website

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

0043-7956

Electronic ISSN

2373-5112

Society / sponsor

International Linguistics Association

Latest issue on the website

Volume 72, Issue 2 (2026)

Official links

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