Policy Sciences
Springer Netherlands · Netherlands
✓ Indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (SSCI) — Clarivate publishes an official Journal Impact Factor and JCR quartile for this journal.
See the official Impact Factor & quartile on the journal’s page ↗The Impact Factor & JCR quartile are licensed by Clarivate — we link you to the official source instead of reprinting a number that can go out of date. Open metrics below: SCImago Q1. Source: Clarivate Journal Citation Reports.
Aims & Scope
With an interdisciplinary and international focus, Policy Sciences encourages a diversity of perspectives. The editors especially welcome conceptual and empirical innovation, together with the potential richness and insight of comparative orientation. The journal offers articles that examine the normative aspects of policy sciences; conceptual articles addressing concrete policy issues; articles on particularly controversial pieces of analysis; opposing perspectives, including critiques and rejoinders on articles already published, which open the journal to an exchange of views rather than restricting it to pure presentation; and special issues that analyze specific topics in depth. Policy Sciences favors, but does not publish exclusively, works that either explicitly or implicitly utilize the policy sciences framework. The policy sciences are a distinctive subset within the policy movement in that they embrace the traditions of innovated and elaborated by Harold D. Lasswell and Myers S. McDougal. The policy sciences can be applied to articles with greater or lesser intensity to accommodate the focus of an author’s work. At the minimum, this means taking a problem oriented, multi-method or contextual approach.
General Information
Submission Info
Ethics & Quality
Think.Check.Submit Compliance
Based on the Think.Check.Submit framework by DOAJ, COPE & OASPA. All data from verified open sources.
Publication & Citation Trend
Source: OpenAlex · Each year’s green bar = citations earned by that year’s papers, counted to date — so recent years look lower simply because their papers haven’t had time to be cited yet.
SJR Quartile by Discipline
Scimago ranks this journal separately in each subject category — its quartile can differ by discipline.
Subject Classification
Web of Science Categories
Scopus Categories
Research Topics (OpenAlex)
Frequently asked questions about Policy Sciences
Is Policy Sciences a predatory journal?
PubScope has no integrity flags on record for Policy Sciences: it is indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, and is not on DOAJ's withdrawn list. Its PubScope Trust Score is 96/100. Indexing is a transparency signal, not a guarantee — always confirm fit and policies before submitting.
What is the impact factor of Policy Sciences?
Policy Sciences is indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, so Clarivate publishes an official Journal Impact Factor for it (since the 2023 Journal Citation Reports, every Core Collection journal — including Arts & Humanities and Emerging Sources titles — receives one). PubScope links to Clarivate's official source rather than reprinting the number, which can be out of date. Its open 2-year mean citedness is 3.61.
Is Policy Sciences indexed in Scopus and Web of Science?
Policy Sciences is indexed in Web of Science, Scopus.
What is the aims and scope of Policy Sciences?
With an interdisciplinary and international focus, Policy Sciences encourages a diversity of perspectives. The editors especially welcome conceptual and empirical innovation, together with the potential richness and insight of comparative orientation. The journal offers articles that examine the normative aspects of policy sciences; conceptual articles addressing concrete policy issues; articles on particularly controversial pieces of analysis; opposing perspectives, including critiques and rejoinders on articles already published, which open the journal to an exchange of views rather than res
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See all →Data updated: 2026-05-22 · Sources: SJR, DOAJ, OpenAlex, WoS, Crossref