About the Global Social Challenges Journal


Learn about our aims and scope, what we are looking for, our Julie Thompson Klein annual prize, the Journal themes, Journal metrics, abstracting and indexing and who to contact. 

Aims and scope

How can we reimagine society in an era of climate change, pandemic, hunger, poverty, questions of racial, ethnic and gender justice and other pressing global societal challenges? Significant threats and dangers lie ahead of us, but so do opportunities, as new ways of being, thinking and doing emerge. This new fully Open Access journal aims to facilitate thinking about these positive new trajectories and to become the journal of choice to address the complexities of global social challenges across disciplines and fields. It is the first such journal to be based in the social sciences, while also engaging with research from humanities, arts and STEM. Including marginalised, minority and Indigenous world views, the journal is an important home for research which contributes to the creation of alternative futures that acknowledge past injustices and are socially and environmentally just and sustaining. It also welcomes conceptual and methodological developments which expand our thinking and enable greater understanding.

The Global Social Challenges Journal facilitates the publication of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research internationally within and beyond academia as well as welcoming single-discipline work. Engaging with innovative and critical perspectives, including decolonial and southern epistemologies and their relationship with those of the Global North, it responds directly to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encompasses co-production and other participatory approaches. The journal recognises new methodologies, offering a range of novel and more traditional outputs. Highly accessible, impactful and policy-facing, it hopes to foster dialogue between academics, policy makers, thought leaders, NGOs, practitioners and the public. By publishing fully Open Access evidence-based, collaborative work in the collective interest through a not-for-profit university press, the journal enables the sharing of knowledge needed to help build a fairer world, across and for the Global South and North.

What we are looking for

We welcome submissions for research articles (up to 8500 words) and 'Interventions'. Interventions are shorter (up to 3500 words) interjections aimed at giving readers a more textured sense of the events, impacts and debates that inspire, shape and sometimes challenge the core research contributions of the journal. We also welcome submissions for special collections. See our 'for authors' pages for further information

Julie Thompson Klein Annual Prize

We are delighted to announce the winner of the inaugural Julie Thompson Klein Annual Prize for the best research article using inter- and trandisciplinary approaches to one or more global societal challenges: 

The situatedness of dilemmas in boundary spaces: uncovering paradoxical conditions for increasing effectiveness through transdisciplinary research approaches
By Henrietta Palmer, Merritt Polk and Elena Raviola     

The Editors-in-Chief found the use of urban governance as the analytical vector very much in line with the core mission of the journal. They particularly valued the authors’ meticulous and deeply transdisciplinary methodology and the clear communication of the implications of their research, both for its methodology per se and for the insights it offers to others working within urban governance.

The prize was established in honour of the memory of Professor Julie Thompson Klein (1944-2023). Julie was a founding Editor in Chief of the journal, and a very significant figure in the evolution interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity as a community of practice. She is also remembered for the support and encouragement she provided to  students and colleagues around the world. 

Each year, the winning article, as well as displaying academic excellence, exemplifies the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research in the context of understanding and overcoming one or more global social challenges. The Editors in chief take a variety of factors into consideration when selecting the winning article and choose that which best represents the mission and ethos of the journal. 

The prize of £150 will be awarded on an annual basis, in April.

Journal themes

These are linked to but not limited by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

We will aim to address these and other issues in the context of their interplay with systemic divisions resulting from class, racialisation, gender and sexuality.

  • Cities and communities 
  • Climate change, energy and sustainability 
  • Conflict, security and peace
  • Democracy, power and governance 
  • Education and learning
  • Equality, diversity and inclusion 
  • The future of work, finance and the economy
  • Health and wellbeing 
  • Hunger, food, water and shelter
  • Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches 
  • Justice, law and human rights 
  • Life stages and intergenerationality 
  • Migration, mobilities and movement 
  • Poverty, inequality and social justice 
  • Society, culture and the arts
  • Technology, data and society

Journal metrics 

2024 Impact Factor 3.6 (2 yr), 3.6 (5 yr)
Ranking 7/68 (Q1) in Social Issues and 70/191 in Environmental Studies

2024 Journals Citation Indicator: 1.38
Ranking 8/68 in Sociology and 35/191 in Environmental Studies

Abstracting and Indexing

Global Social Challenges Journal is abstracted and/or indexed in:

  • The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science)
  • Scopus

ISSN

 Online ISSN 2752-3349

Contact

Editorial enquiries and Open Access

Katie Foxall, Managing Editor: info@globalsocialchallenges.com