About the Journal
The Journal of Excellence in Social Sciences (JESS) is an international, peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal published by SMARCONS (Private) Limited. The journal publishes two issues per year and provides a forum for original research, scholarly reviews, and conceptual and theoretical contributions across the social sciences.
JESS seeks to advance understanding of individuals, institutions, communities, and societies and to connect scholarly research with policy and practice. Its readership includes researchers, educators, policymakers, and practitioners. The journal welcomes submissions from all geographical regions and encourages interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research.
All scholarly articles undergo double-blind peer review. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, methodological quality, originality, relevance to the journal’s scope, and ethical integrity.
Published articles are immediately and freely accessible without subscriptions, registration requirements, or embargo periods. Authors retain copyright, and articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits sharing and adaptation, including commercial reuse, provided appropriate attribution is given, the license is linked, and changes are indicated.
JESS currently charges no submission fees, article processing charges, or other mandatory publication fees. Details are provided in the journal’s Article Processing Charges Policy.
Objectives of JESS
- To publish original, methodologically sound, and ethically conducted research that advances social science knowledge.
- To encourage dialogue across social science disciplines and geographical contexts.
- To connect theoretical and empirical research with societal challenges, public policy, and professional practice.
- To support transparent research reporting, constructive peer review, and responsible scholarly communication.
- To make scholarly research immediately accessible and reusable through open-access publication.
Aims and Scope
The Journal of Excellence in Social Sciences (JESS) publishes research examining social behaviour, relationships, institutions, structures, and processes. It welcomes studies that develop theory, provide empirical evidence, critically assess existing knowledge, or examine the implications of research for policy and practice.
The journal’s disciplinary scope includes:
- Anthropology and sociology
- Political science, public administration, and international relations
- Economics and development studies
- Psychology and social work
- Education
- Law, legal studies, and criminology
- Media, communication, and cultural studies
- Gender studies
- Demography and population studies
- Human geography, urban studies, and regional studies
- Environmental and sustainability studies with a clear social science focus
Topics of interest include social inequality, justice, governance, identity, migration, human rights, health and well-being, education, gender, cultural change, development, and the social dimensions of environmental and technological change.
JESS welcomes qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research, alongside systematic reviews, other scholarly reviews, and conceptual and theoretical articles. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary submissions are encouraged where their contribution to social science knowledge is clearly established.
Submissions must present a clear scholarly purpose, engage with relevant literature, and use methods or analytical approaches appropriate to their research questions. Empirical studies should describe their research design, data collection, and analysis transparently. Review articles should explain their approach to identifying and synthesising literature. Conceptual and theoretical articles should develop coherent arguments grounded in relevant scholarship.
Research addressing a particular country, community, or institution is welcome when its contribution to wider scholarly understanding is clearly explained.
Peer Review and Editorial Assessment
JESS follows a double-blind peer-review process, in which author identities are concealed from reviewers and reviewer identities are concealed from authors. Authors must submit an anonymised manuscript in accordance with the Author Guidelines.
Submissions first undergo editorial screening for relevance, scholarly suitability, compliance with submission requirements, and research integrity. Manuscripts proceeding to external review are assessed by at least two independent reviewers with appropriate subject expertise.
All scholarly articles, including invited articles and articles submitted to special issues or thematic collections, undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process before acceptance. Editorial notices, corrections, retraction notices, and other administrative content may undergo editorial assessment rather than external peer review.
Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest. Submissions authored by editors, editorial board members, or guest editors are handled by an independent editor without a relevant conflict of interest. The submitting editor must not participate in reviewer selection or decisions concerning their own manuscript.
Final publication decisions rest with the Editor-in-Chief or an authorised academic editor and are based on reviewer reports, editorial assessment, and applicable journal policies. Acceptance and fixed decision dates are not guaranteed.
Manuscripts are screened for text similarity and other research-integrity concerns. Similarity reports are assessed by the editorial team and are not treated as conclusive evidence of plagiarism.
Further details are available in the journal’s Peer Review Policy and Publication Ethics Policy.
