Aims and scope
Journal metrics
Abstracting and indexing 
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Testimonials
Contact us

Aims and scope

The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice provides an internationally unique forum for leading research on the themes of poverty and social justice. Focusing on poverty and social exclusion, the journal explores links with social security (including pensions and tax credits), employment, area regeneration, housing, health, education and criminal justice, as well as issues of ethnicity, gender, disability and other social inequalities as they relate to social justice.

Both empirical and non-empirical papers will be expected to make a clear contribution towards the understanding of both poverty and social justice. Papers that address social justice without any direct relationship with poverty will be rejected. Similarly, papers that only discuss methodological measurement of poverty without advancing the understanding of poverty and social justice will not be accepted.

The journal encompasses an original and exciting mix of scholarly research articles and lively policy- and practice-oriented discussions of topical questions. Interdisciplinary and international in scope, the journal is essential reading for academics, students, policy makers and practitioners interested in poverty, social security, welfare and justice.

The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice welcomes submissions from those working in these areas across the globe. All research articles are peer-reviewed.

Journal metrics

Impact Factor and rankings

2020 Impact Factor: 0.884 (2yr)
Ranked 87th of 110 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary; 38th of 44 journals in Social Issues 

2022 Scopus CiteScore: 1.5

Abstracting and indexing

The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice is abstracted and/or indexed in:

• European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH Plus)
• Journal Citation Reports
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
• Public Affairs Information Service
• Scopus
• Social Care Online
• Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
• Various EBSCO and ProQuest bibliographic databases.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change. 

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Testimonials

“The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice is clearly one of the best in the field, as I learned in preparing for my visit to the UK as UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.”
Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and John Norton Pomeroy Professor, NYU Law School, USA

"Published by Policy Press, the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice features excellent scholarship social policy researchers and practitioners should read and engage with."
Daniel Béland, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Contact us

Editorial enquiries:

Editorial office: JPSJoffice@gmail.com

Co-Editors:

Joanna Mack: joanna.mack@open.ac.uk

Marco Pomati: pomatim@cardiff.ac.uk

Journal sections

Policy and Practice
Simon Brimblecombe: brimblecombe@ilo.org
Diana Skelton: diana.skelton@atd-quartmonde.org 

Book reviews
Rod Dacombe: rod.dacombe@kcl.ac.uk

Open Access, subscriptions and free trials:
Policy Press: pp-journals@bristol.ac.uk

Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following: 

What are we looking for?
How to submit an article
Ethical guidelines
Copyright
Style
Alt-text
References
English language editing service
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us

Visit our journal author toolkit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.

What are we looking for?

Research Articles should be up to 9,000 words (excluding references) in length. Authors should make clear the policy context, reference only directly relevant literature, adopt an intelligible structure and a lucid style, use rigorous argument and reach clear conclusions. Both empirical and non-empirical papers will be expected to make a clear contribution towards the understanding of poverty and social justice. Papers which address sound, theoretically informed and policy-relevant questions about poverty and social justice are particularly welcome. All papers should aim to make specific and corroborated points. A balanced review of the relevant literature is also expected. All empirical papers should have a clear methodological section detailing data collection as well as strengths and limitations. Technical and statistical material should be presented in a transparent way that is understandable to a lay audience.

All Research articles should include an abstract of no more than 250 words which clearly outlines the methodology (where applicable) and the substantive argument or findings.

Specific guidance for quantitative analysis research articles
Papers which examine the determinants of poverty or related outcomes need to place their construction and analysis in a clear theoretical framework which sets out the reasons why the particular measure of poverty used has been chosen and the research question the paper is setting out to answer. The choice of all variables needs to follow a thorough and theory-based approach. Overall, the research needs to have policy relevance with the potential to lead to specific policy recommendations. Failure to do the latter is likely to lead to rejection.

All papers should provide clear and comprehensive information on data collection strategies (e.g. sampling design), representativeness of the sample, informed consent and research ethics.

All model (e.g. regression or CFA/SEM models) tables should present the number of cases used and at least two distinct measures of global fit (e.g. Adjusted R-squared and AIC).All papers should justify choice of specific methodology. Informed comparison between relevant models with different specifications (e.g. different sets of independent variables, different types of effects and functional forms) are encouraged. Multicollinearity between independent variables should be inspected (for example using measures such VIF). Authors should explain the magnitude and relevance of important regression coefficients rather than simply reporting these or simply stating whether they are statistically significant. All model tables should be carefully formatted and editable in Word. Software and relevant packages used for the statistical analysis should be stated in the methodology.

Specific guidance for qualitative analysis research articles
The methodology should describe the number of participants, how informed consent was secured, the rationale for the particular methodology as well as the recruitment strategy and criteria and when and where the study took place. Confirmation that proper consideration to any other ethical issues raised by the study should be included as appropriate.

Qualitative explorations of the experience of poverty and related phenomena (e.g. stigma) based on small-scale studies should have a wider policy relevance than the particular setting in which the research was conducted. It should also acknowledge both strengths and limitations in their ability to inform policy.

Specific guidance for mixed methods research articles
Mixed methods research should follow the relevant guidance for quantitative and qualitative papers, as well as outlining advantages and limitations of the mixed methods approach for the research question tackled by the paper.

Specific guidance for theoretical research articles
Non-methodological papers and/or sections must be constructed in a logical, understandable and concatenated way, aiming to demonstrate precisely and deeply the contribution of the presented work to Poverty and Social Justice.

Policy and Practice articles General Guidance:

Policy and Practice articles are published in a separate section
They are concerned with policy ideas and practical developments (or both) in the field of poverty and social justice. The Policy and Practice section provides updates on, and analysis of, new developments, issues, and legislation aimed at reducing poverty, especially, but not exclusively, with reference to issues such as welfare rights, labour rights, and financial access. Contributions should be no longer than 3000 words (including references) and be in line with the general focus of the journal. The papers do not go out to peer-review but nevertheless should maintain academic standards including relevant and clear referencing. All papers in the Policy and Practice section will be available to the general public free of charge.

Policy Papers generally explore ideas that could emanate from think tanks, NGOs, those within social protection organisations and the like as well as local or national government or international organisations. Non-academic authors involved in policy development are welcome. Practice papers provide an initial overview of the implementation of certain policies and/or new initiatives; contributions from practitioners providing a critical reflection of an initiative in which they have been involved are particularly welcome. 

All Policy and Practice articles should state and explain very clearly: (i) which experiences have informed the paper, which could include small-scale research, knowledge exchange, iterative or reflective practice and the like (ii) the limitations of the material presented in providing policy recommendations and (iii) how future research could help corroborate the conclusion. The key findings as well as the three points above should be also summarised in an abstract of no more than 250 words.

How to submit

All submissions should be made online at the Journal of Poverty & Social Justice Editorial Manager website: http://www.editorialmanager.com/jpsj/default.aspx, in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details. 
 

Editorial Manager

Manuscripts must be in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.

Preparing your anonymised manuscript

Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:

1. A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 250 words), up to 5 key words/short phrases and the article word count including references. A cover page template is available to download here.
2. A fully anonymized manuscript which does not include any of the information included in the cover page. It should not include any author or study names, acknowledgments, funding details, or conflicts of interest that would identify the author(s). References to the authors' own work should be anonymised as follows: "Author's own, [year]". Please note that submissions that have not been sufficiently anonymised will be returned.
3. If you have any Figures and Tables please upload them as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. 
4. In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.

For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.

Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version.

Checklist: what to include in your final, accepted non-anonymised manuscript

1. A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 250 words), up to 5 key words and the word count.
    

A non-anonymised manuscript including:

1. Funding details: list any funding including the grant numbers you have received for the research covered in your article as follows: "This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx]."
2. Conflict of interest statement: please declare any possible conflicts of interest, or state "The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest" if there are none. Find out more about declaring conflicts of interest in the Bristol University Press/ Policy Press Ethical Guidelines.
3. Acknowledgements: acknowledge those who have provided you with any substantial assistance or advice with collecting data, developing your ideas, editing or any other comments to develop your argument or text.
4. Figures and Tables: should be included as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. For advice about less common file formats please contact dave.j.worth@bristol.ac.uk.
5. Alt text: In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.
6. Supplemental data: We recommend that any supplemental data are hosted in a data repository (such as figshare) for maximum exposure, and are cited as a reference in the article.
7. Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement: Please upload a scanned copy of the completed and signed agreement with your final non-anonymised manuscript. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.

Editorial review process

All submissions will be subject to double anonymous peer-review processes (unless stated otherwise) by referees currently working in the appropriate field.

The editors aim to provide quick decisions and to ensure that submission to publication takes the minimum possible time. Please note: submissions that, in the opinion of the editors, have not been anonymised for review will be returned to authors. The final decision on publication rests with the managing editors. 

Ethical guidelines

At Policy Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards of review and publication ethics in our journals. Policy Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidance.

Find out more about our ethical guidelines.

Copyright and permissions

The Journal of Poverty & Social Justice is published by Policy Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Policy Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.

Authors will be asked to sign a Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the assignment. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The journal contributor agreement can be downloaded here.

Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables, and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Policy Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.

To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in the Journal of Poverty & Social Justice please email Policy Press: pp-info@bristol.ac.uk. 

For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.

Style

• British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
• Non-discriminatory language is mandatory. See our guidelines to sensitive language (appendix C of document).
• Explanatory notes should be kept to a minimum. If it is necessary to use them, they must be numbered consecutively in the text and listed at the end of the article. Please do not embed notes in the text.
• Please do not embed bibliographic references in the text, footnotes, live links or macros; the final submitted file should be clear of track changes and ready for print.
• Tables and charts should be separated from the text and submitted in a Word or Excel file, with their placement in the text clearly indicated by inserting: ‘Table X here’. Please provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
• Figures, diagrams and maps should be separated from the text and, ideally, submitted in an Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file. Figures created in Word or Excel are acceptable in those file formats. If the figures, diagrams and maps are in other formats (i.e. have been pasted into a Word file rather than created in it) please contact dave.j.worth@bristol.ac.uk for advice. Please indicate where figures should be placed in the text, by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).

Alt-text

In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. See our guidance on writing alt-text.

References

Download the Endnote output style for Bristol University Press and Policy Press journals.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press use a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:

• In-text citations: give the author’s surname followed by year of publication in brackets.
• List all references in full at the end of the article and remove any references not cited in the text.
• Book and journal titles should be in italics.
• Website details should be placed at the end of the reference.
• Spell out all acronyms in the first instance.

Example of book reference:
Dorling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why social inequality persists, Bristol: Policy Press.

Example of journal reference:
Warin, P. (2012) 'Non-demand for Social Rights: A new challenge for social action in France', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1): 41–53.

Example of chapter within edited / multi-authored publication:
Levitas, R. (2011) 'Utopia Calling: Eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond', in A. Minujin and S. Nandy (eds), Global Child Poverty and Well-being: Measurement, concepts, policy and action, Bristol, Policy Press. pp. 449–73.

Example of website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse? https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.

Contact us

Editorial enquiries:
Editorial Office: JPSJoffice@gmail.com

Journal sections

Policy and practice
Simon Brimblecombe: brimblecombe@ilo.org
Terry Patterson: terry.patterson@manchester.gov.uk

Book reviews
Rod Dacombe: rod.dacombe@kcl.ac.uk

Open Access, subscriptions and free trials:
Policy Press: pp-journals@bristol.ac.uk

Co-Editors

Joanna Mack, Co-Editor; Open University, UK 
Marco Pomati, Co-Editor; Cardiff University, UK

Editorial team

Diana Skelton, Associate Editor: Policy & Practice;  ATD Fourth World, UK
Ruth Patrick, Associate Editor: Social Media; University of York, UK
Enrique Delamonica, Associate Editor; UNICEF
Shatakshee Dhongde, Associate Editor; Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Alba Lanau, Associate Editor; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Editorial Board

Stephen Sinclair, Chair of the Board; Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Nick Bailey, University of Glasgow, UK
Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo, Makerere University, Uganda
Armando Barrientos, University of Manchester, UK
Daniel Beland, McGill University, Canada
Tania Burchardt, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Qin Gao, Columbia University, USA 
Kayleigh Garthwaite, University of Birmingham, UK
Ruth Lister, Loughborough University, UK
Cristina Rat, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Veli-Matti Ritakallio, University of Turku, Finland
Solange Rosa, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Peter Saunders, University of New South Wales, Australia 
Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University, USA

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