About the journal

Social pedagogy is a long-standing discipline, field of research and practice area in various countries and is becoming better known in others. It offers an integrative and coherent ethical framework for supporting learning, well-being, and social inclusion both through relationship-centred practice and critical perspectives on structural efforts to address social inequality and promote social justice. Social pedagogy engages with concepts such as ‘human flourishing’ and ‘meaningful belonging’ to achieve social change together with individuals and communities.

Through the journal we seek to make a substantial contribution to the international discourse on social pedagogy. Since its inception in 2012 to support the evolution of social pedagogy in the UK, the journal has proved to be an important platform for dialogue that contributes to social pedagogy as an evolving interdisciplinary field.

Articles in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy reflect the cross-cultural perspectives of a wide range of social pedagogical traditions and provide a deepening disciplinary understanding of social pedagogy itself.


  1. Aims and Scope
  2. What we publish
  3. Editorial process and Peer Review
  4. Acceptance criteria
  5. Open Access and Licensing
  6. Article publication charges (APCs)
  7. Discoverability and Indexing
  8. Journal metrics
  9. Journal Details
  10. Contact and Community

Aims and scope

The International Journal of Social Pedagogy (IJSP) is a Diamond Open Access, peer-reviewed journal publishing articles on social pedagogy.

Our journal promotes a continuous rethinking of educational and human rights centred responses to complex social issues. We encourage rigorous original contributions about theory and research in social pedagogy as well as review and practice papers, along with opinion pieces that reflect social pedagogical perspectives and challenges (see here for the editorial).

We warmly welcome articles that highlight the dynamics and potential of social pedagogy from researchers, scholars, educators, policy-makers, and practitioners in social pedagogy and related fields. Relevant areas of practice explored in IJSP from a social pedagogical perspective include: child welfare and family support services; social work; health; social care; early childhood education and care; formal education and teaching support in schools; youth and community work; adult education; life-long learning; creative and expressive arts; employment support; criminal justice; learning and developmental disability, and physical disability services; community education; children’s rights, human rights and participation in everyday life, although this list is not exhaustive.

If you are an author interested in publishing with us but are unsure whether your research fits into our aims, please get in touch and we would be happy to discuss your prospective contribution with you.


What we publish

We welcome a wide range of content formats, including:

  • Research articles
  • Review articles (e.g. systematic reviews)
  • Practice papers
  • Perspective and opinion articles
  • Commentaries
  • Book reviews

Find out more about how to format and submit to the journal in our Author Guidelines:

Author guidelines

Editorial process and Peer Review

The International Journal of Social Pedagogy operates double anonymised peer review, where both the reviewers and authors are anonymised during review. Authors should submit an anonymous version of the manuscript, removed of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review.

Reviewers cannot be from the same institution as the author, based at any funding bodies connected to the paper and cannot be recommended by authors or anyone else connected to the paper. Author(s) should submit an anonymous version of the manuscript, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review.

Further information regarding peer review can be found on the UCL Press editorial policy pages (https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/site/editorial_policy).


Acceptance criteria

We assess submissions based on:

  • Relevance to our aims, scope and mission.
  • Clarity and soundness of argument and findings.
  • Evidence of new knowledge and meaningful contribution to the field.
  • Responsiveness to reviewer and Editorial feedback.

Submissions are unlikely to be accepted if they:

  • Are primarily commercial or self-promotional.
  • Contain excessive self-citation.
  • Lack clear conclusions or conceptual rigour.
  • Provide minimal updates on prior work.
  • Are not suitable for peer review due to clarity or fit with the journal.

Articles accepted for full publication will be those where the Editorial Board has received at least two favourable peer reviews and is satisfied that all reviewer and Editorial comments have been adequately addressed.

Experience suggests that few submissions are accepted after a single review round. The Editorial Board may decline a submission at any stage if reviewer concerns cannot be addressed to the Board’s satisfaction. In some cases, Editors may request revisions before peer review to support review effectiveness.


Preprints

The International Journal of Social Pedagogy is happy to accept submissions of papers that have been loaded onto preprint servers or personal websites, have been presented at conferences, or other informal communication channels. These formats will not be deemed prior publication. Authors must retain copyright to such preprints and are encouraged to link any prior posting of their paper to the final published version within the journal, if it is editorially accepted.

Further information about self-archiving your article on preprint servers can be found on the UCL Press editorial policy pages:

Editorial policies

Open Access and Licensing

All content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. This ensures:

  • Free access for readers worldwide.
  • Retention of copyright by authors.
  • Maximum flexibility for reuse, adaptation and sharing.

We follow the Budapest Open Access Initiative and are committed to author rights and open scholarship. Our Author Contributor Agreement outlines full terms for publication:

Author Contributor Agreement

Article publication charges (APCs)

The International Journal of Social Pedagogy is a Diamond Open Access journal, meaning that UCL Press does not levy any Article-Processing Charges (APCs) for submission or publication.

UCL Press covers all the costs to publishing every article and publishing is free at every stage:

  • No submission fees
  • No peer review fees
  • No publication fees


This reflects our commitment to equity and non-profit publishing, especially for authors with limited funding or from underrepresented sectors.


Discoverability and Indexing

UCL Press works with subject specific indexers to deposit published articles in relevant repositories and search databases. Articles published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy are indexed in:


Journal metrics

We are committed to the responsible use of metrics and strongly encourage all readers, authors, reviewers, and Editors to read through our statement about the use of metrics across the journal, available online at https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/site/editorial_policy/#METRICS.


Citation metrics
  • Scopus CiteScore (2025) 1.3
  • Scopus SJR (2025) not yet released
  • Scopus SNIP (2025) not yet released

Journal Details

ISSN: 2051-5804
Publication frequency: Continuous (as and when ready)
Average time to publication: ~25 weeks


Published by

UCL Press, University College London (UCL)
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

journals.uclpress.co.uk

uclpressjournals@ucl.ac.uk


Contact and Community

We are a community-led journal. Whether you’re submitting, reviewing, or simply reading, we invite you to be part of our network.

For pre-submission enquiries:
admin@internationaljournalofsocialpedagogy.com


Stay connected:

Bluesky: @uclpressjournals.bsky.social‬

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-journal-of-social-pedagogy