About this journal
Aims and scope
Policing & Society is widely acknowledged as the leading international academic journal specialising in the study of policing institutions and their practices. It is concerned with all aspects of how policing articulates and animates the social contexts in which it is located. This includes:
- Social scientific investigations of police policy and activity
- Legal and political analyses of police powers and governance
- Management oriented research on aspects of police organisation
Space is also devoted to the relationship between what the police do and the policing decisions and functions of communities, private sector organisations and other state agencies.
As such, the journal is of vital interest to academics involved in the scholarly study of all of the varied facets of contemporary policing, as well as police and other practitioners involved in social regulation and control.
Policing & Society is renowned for its genuinely international scope and has correspondents in most countries where there is a tradition of academic inquiry into all aspects of policing. The journal is committed to rigorous policy debate and the very highest standards of scholarship.
Peer Review Policy:
All articles published in Policing & Society are subject to editorial screening and anonymous peer review processes.
- Clifford Shearing, Australian National University, Australia
’Policing and Society has become the premier scholarly journal on the police in the English-speaking world. It is unique in being comparative, meaning that it has sought to attract articles that deal with police matters from around the world. The best people in the large field of policing think of publishing in Policing and Society as their first option as opposed to generalist criminal justice journals.’
- David H. Bayley, School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany, USA
Journal metrics
Usage
- 412K annual downloads/views
Citation metrics
- 2.0 (2023) Impact Factor
- Q1 Impact Factor Best Quartile
- 2.4 (2023) 5 year IF
- 5.4 (2023) CiteScore (Scopus)
- Q1 CiteScore Best Quartile
- 1.510 (2023) SNIP
- 0.820 (2023) SJR
Speed/acceptance
- 21 days avg. from submission to first decision
- 63 days avg. from submission to first post-review decision
- 9 days avg. from acceptance to online publication
- 19% acceptance rate
Understanding and using journal metrics
Journal metrics can be a useful tool for readers, as well as for authors who are deciding where to submit their next manuscript for publication. However, any one metric only tells a part of the story of a journal’s quality and impact. Each metric has its limitations which means that it should never be considered in isolation, and metrics should be used to support and not replace qualitative review.
We strongly recommend that you always use a number of metrics, alongside other qualitative factors such as a journal’s aims & scope, its readership, and a review of past content published in the journal. In addition, a single article should always be assessed on its own merits and never based on the metrics of the journal it was published in.
For more details, please read the Author Services guide to understanding journal metrics.
Journal metrics in brief
Usage and acceptance rate data above are for the last full calendar year and are updated annually in February. Speed data is updated every six months, based on the prior six months. Citation metrics are updated annually mid-year. Please note that some journals do not display all of the following metrics (find out why).
- Usage: the total number of times articles in the journal were viewed by users of Taylor & Francis Online in the previous calendar year, rounded to the nearest thousand.
Citation Metrics
- Impact Factor*: the average number of citations received by articles published in the journal within a two-year window. Only journals in the Clarivate Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) have an Impact Factor.
- Impact Factor Best Quartile*: the journal’s highest subject category ranking in the Journal Citation Reports. Q1 = 25% of journals with the highest Impact Factors.
- 5 Year Impact Factor*: the average number of citations received by articles in the journal within a five-year window.
- CiteScore (Scopus)†: the average number of citations received by articles in the journal over a four-year period.
- CiteScore Best Quartile†: the journal’s highest CiteScore ranking in a Scopus subject category. Q1 = 25% of journals with the highest CiteScores.
- SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper): the number of citations per paper in the journal, divided by citation potential in the field.
- SJR (Scimago Journal Rank): Average number of (weighted) citations in one year, divided by the number of articles published in the journal in the previous three years.
Speed/acceptance
- From submission to first decision: the average (median) number of days for a manuscript submitted to the journal to receive a first decision. Based on manuscripts receiving a first decision in the last six months.
- From submission to first post-review decision: the average (median) number of days for a manuscript submitted to the journal to receive a first decision if it is sent out for peer review. Based on manuscripts receiving a post-review first decision in the last six months.
- From acceptance to online publication: the average (median) number of days from acceptance of a manuscript to online publication of the Version of Record. Based on articles published in the last six months.
- Acceptance rate: articles accepted for publication by the journal in the previous calendar year as percentage of all papers receiving a final decision.
For more details on the data above, please read the Author Services guide to understanding journal metrics.
*Copyright: Journal Citation Reports®, Clarivate Analytics
†Copyright: CiteScore™, Scopus
Editorial board
Editor-In-Chief:
Jenny Fleming - University of Southampton, UK
Associate Editors:
Jarrett Blaustein - School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, Australia
Sebastian Roché - Institute of Political Sciences, University of Grenoble, France
Editorial Board:
Matthew Bacon - University of Sheffield, UK
Professor Michelle Bonner - University of Victoria, Canada
Ben Bradford - Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, University College London, UK
Russell Brewer - University of Adelaide, Australia
Tessa Diphoorn - Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Adam Edwards - Cardiff University, UK
Cory Haberman - University of Cincinnati, USA
Stuart Lister - University of Leeds, UK
Megan O’ Neill - University of Dundee, Scotland
Louise Porter - Griffith University, Australia
Elise Sargeant - Griffith University, Australia
Marissa Silvestri - University of Kent, UK
Pamela Ugwudike - University of Southampton, UK
Ronald Van Steden - VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
James J. Willis - George Mason University, USA
Advisory Board:
Jennifer Brown - London School of Economics, UK
Adrian Cherney - University of Queensland, Australia
Adam Crawford - University of Leeds, UK
Jack R. Greene - Northeastern University, USA
Pieter Leloup - Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Jacques de Maillard - Center for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions, France
Peter Manning - Northeastern University, USA
Kristina Murphy - Griffith University, Australia
Tim Newburn - London School of Economics, UK
Tim Prenzler - University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Robert Reiner - London School of Economics, UK
Ujjwal Kumar Singh - University of Delhi, India
Maximo Sozzo - National University of Litoral, Argentina
Clifford Stott - Keele University, UK
Abstracting and indexing
Open access
Policing and Society is a hybrid open access journal that is part of our Open Select publishing program, giving you the option to publish open access. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research.
Why choose open access?
- Increase the discoverability and readership of your article
- Make an impact and reach new readers, not just those with easy access to a research library
- Freely share your work with anyone, anywhere
- Comply with funding mandates and meet the requirements of your institution, employer or funder
- Rigorous peer review for every open access article
Article Publishing Charges (APC)
If you choose to publish open access in this journal you may be asked to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC). You may be able to publish your article at no cost to yourself or with a reduced APC if your institution or research funder has an open access agreement or membership with Taylor & Francis.
Use our APC finder to calculate your article publishing charge
10 issues per year
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