About the journal

Jewish Historical Studies: A Journal of English-Speaking Jewry is owned by the Jewish Historical Society of England. The society is the oldest historical and learned society of its kind in Europe and was founded in 1893 by the foremost Anglo-Jewish scholars and communal leaders of the day. Past presidents have included Lucien Wolf, F.D. Mocatta, Israel Zangwill, Cecil Roth and Sir Isaiah Berlin. The society is based in London, and has branches in Essex, Leeds, Liverpool, Herts and Middlesex, Sussex and Jerusalem. Read more about the society at https://www.jhse.org.


  1. Aims and Scope
  2. What we publish
  3. Editorial process and Peer Review
  4. Acceptance criteria
  5. Open Access and Licensing
  6. Diamond OA – no article publication charges (APCs)
  7. Discoverability and Indexing
  8. Journal metrics
  9. Journal Details
  10. Contact and Community
  11. Journal archive

Aims and scope

Jewish Historical Studies: A Journal of English-Speaking Jewry (JHS) publishes original, peer reviewed research that explores the historical experience of Jews across the English-speaking Jewish world.

In concert with its founding mission, JHS encourages and solicits research focused on the Jewish past in pre-modern and modern England. However, from 2023, reflecting its change of name, the journal will embrace a broader vision, devoting attention to other Jewish communities with which Anglo-Jewry shares intimate historical ties: South Africa, Canada, Australia, and the English-speaking Caribbean.

The journal invites articles that address both the distinct histories of these communities, while also encouraging comparative historical work across communities that otherwise have been typically studied as discrete units. We seek contributions that deepen and broaden our understanding of the characteristics of English-speaking Jewry, particularly the challenges and opportunities that liberal host societies presented to the development of Jewish life. We also seek articles that trace the transnational connections between these communities and identify the ways in which a common language facilitated the emergence of a distinctive anglophone Jewish sphere.

While predominantly historical in its focus, JHS encourages contributions that augment historical perspectives with the insights and methodologies of complementary disciplines.


What we publish

We welcome a wide range of content formats, including:

  • Research articles
  • Review article
  • Book review

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

Author guidelines

Editorial process and Peer Review

Jewish Historical Studies 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

Jewish Historical Studies 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

Diamond OA – no article publication charges (APCs)

Jewish Historical Studies 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 Jewish Historical Studies are indexed in:

  • Web of Science (AHCI)
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • Dimensions
  • EBSCO
  • RAMBI - The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies (National Library of Israel)
  • Ulrichsweb
  • OCLC
  • Google Scholar
  • Baidu
  • Portico and CLOCKSS (for long-term preservation)

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
  • Impact Factor (2024) 0.1
  • Q4 (Impact Factor quartile - History)
  • Five year Impact Factor (2024) 0.2

Journal Details

ISSN: 2397-1290
Publication frequency: one issue per year.


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.

All general enquiries should be sent to the Editorial Assistant at:
guiguicje [at] gmail.com


Stay connected:

Bluesky: @uclpressjournals.bsky.social‬‬‬

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ucl-press-journals


Journal archive

The journal was first published in 1893 as Jewish Historical Studies: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England (Volume 1-54) and the journal was made an open access publication from Volume 47 (2015). All previous issues of the journal are made available via JSTOR.