ImpaQ Ecosystem•Clarivate, Scopus & CORE Data
Clarivate WoS 2024 / 2025 Data
IMPAQ
WoS ESCI Q2Scopus Q2SCImago #14,483Hybrid

LAW AND CRITIQUE

Acronym:lacq
•
Identifier (ISSN):0957-8536(Print)/1572-8617(Online)
•
Publisher:Springer Nature
Clarivate JCR Index Advisory: Active (ESCI)
Clarivate IF (2026)
0.7↓ -0.2
Journal Impact Factor
IF Trend↓
WoS Quartile
Q2
WoS ESCIJCR Quartile
Clarivate WoS JCR
WoS Categories↓
JCR Release Date: 2026-06-17

Impact Factor Trend (2023–2026)

Clarivate IF trend for LAW AND CRITIQUE

WoS Q2
01121.220230.820240.920250.72026
Annual Impact Factor Metric
Current (2026):0.7
Scopus SJR & RankScopus Q2
0.389
#14,483

SCImago Journal Rank citation prestige weighting

Scopus Year: 2025
H-Index (2025)
29

29 papers with at least that number of citations each

WoS: ESCIQ2
Self-Citation Rate0%
Safe Level (< 15%)Warning Level (> 20%)
Self-citation below 15% indicates strong scholarly independence.
Volume & Open AccessHybrid
28articles/year
73.61% Gold OA•100% Original Research

Aims & Scope

Law and Critique is the prime international critical legal theory journal. It has been published for 20 years and is associated with the Critical Legal Conference. Law and Critique covers all aspects of legal theory, jurisprudence and substantive law that are approached from a critical perspective. Law and Critique has introduced into legal scholarship a variety of schools of thought, such as postmodernism; feminism; queer theory; critical race theory; literary approaches to law; psychoanalysis; law and the humanities; law and aesthetics and post-colonialism. Postmodern jurisprudence, law and aesthetics and law and psychoanalysis were pioneered in Law and Critique which remains the most authoritative international source for these schools of thought. Law and Critique is keen to translate and incorporate non-English critical legal thought. More specifically, Law and Critique encourages the submission of articles in the areas of critical legal theory and history, law and literature, law and psychoanalysis, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, law and post-colonialism; postmodern jurisprudence, law and aesthetics; legal phenomenology; and law and autopoiesis. Past special issues include: 'Critical Legal Education'; 'The Gender of Law'; 'Law and Postmodernism'; 'Law and Literature'; 'Law and Post-colonialism', 'Law and Theatre'; 'Jean-Luc Nancy and Law'; 'Agamben and Law'. Law and Critique is ranked amongst the top 20 per cent of law journals by the Australian Research Council.

Topics Covered (Recognized by AI)
Political science98.5%Law98.3%Sociology97.3%Philosophy77.3%Comparative law57%Public law55.8%Philosophy of law55.6%Epistemology54.4%Politics48.8%Economics36.3%Computer science34.3%Psychology31.4%Theology29.9%History27.6%Art27.6%Biology24.1%Linguistics23.9%Geography23.2%Archaeology23%
Primary Research Areas

WoS Categories & Quartiles

Detailed JCR / JCI category rankings and quartile breakdown from Clarivate

Clarivate JCR & JCI
JCRESCI2026

LAW

Q2
Rank199/443
IndexESCI
JCIESCI2026

LAW

Q2
Rank140/443
IndexESCI

Annual Historical Statistics & Publications

Track annual publication volume, total citations, and Impact Factor evolution

13 year
2026Latest
IF0.7
Articles / Year—
Total Citations—
2025
IF0.9
Articles / Year24
Total Citations12
2024
IF0.8
Articles / Year26
Total Citations24
2023
IF1.2
Articles / Year31
Total Citations53
2022
IF—
Articles / Year24
Total Citations158

SCImago & Scopus Journal Intelligence

Global SCImago ranking, SJR prestige index, Scopus coverage, and societal policy impact

Rank #14,483Scopus Q2SCImago Profile
Scopus Coverage:1990-2002, 2004-2025
Scopus Broad Areas:Social Sciences
Scopus Citation Rank (SJR)Q2
0.389

Weighted prestige citation metric per document indexed in the Scopus database.

Quartile: Scopus Q2
Citations / Doc (2 years)
1.36

Average citations received per document published in the 2-year window.

2-Year Citation Window
Estimated Publication Fee (APC)
$2,754 USD

Estimated Article Processing Charge for Open Access publication.

Estimated cost / article

Scopus 3-Year Publication & Citation Window

3-Year Citations103
3-Year Documents77
Citable Documents74

Aggregated from Scopus database across the 3-year SJR evaluation window.

Societal Impact & Inclusivity (SCImago)

Policy Citations (Overton)1

Citations in government and international policy documents

Female Author Rate34.2%

Percentage of female authors published in the journal

Real-world societal policy reach and author gender diversity tracked by SCImago.

Scopus Subject Categories

LawQ2
Academic Metric Intelligence

Journal Metrics & Citation Visualizations

Total Cites vs Self-Cites

Evaluation of scholarly independence and citation reach

Total citations steady growth
Self-citation: 0%

Citations per Document

Citation metric windows across 2, 3, and 4 years

Cites / Doc (4 years)Cites / Doc (3 years)Cites / Doc (2 years)

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Classification

Major / minor zone classification and CAS Early Warning List history

Major Category (Broad Field):
3区 (Zone 3)Sociology
Minor Category (Specific Field):
2区LAW
CAS Early Warning List History:
Updated annually: 2020 – 2024
2020
Not warned
2021
Not warned
2022
Not warned
2023
Not warned
2024
Not warned

Academic Intelligence Overview & Context

ImpaQ Analysis

LAW AND CRITIQUE (acronym: lacq, ISSN: 0957-8536) is a peer-reviewed international scholarly journal in the field of LAW, published by Springer Nature in Netherlands. The periodical holds a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 0.70, ranking in quartile Q2 of Web of Science (ESCI), a Scopus SJR indicator of 0.389 (Q2), an H-index of 29.

The journal enforces rigorous peer evaluation with a publication frequency of 3 issues per year, an annual output of approximately 28 scientific articles. In terms of accessibility and author fees, it operates under the Hybrid model with an estimated APC of $2,754 USD. It serves as a benchmark publication platform for academics, researchers, and doctoral candidates seeking global research visibility.

Publishing & Editorial Information

Detailed publisher, peer-review turnaround, and publication cycle specifications

Open Access Model
Hybrid
Publisher
Springer Nature
Publication Language
English
Frequency
3 issues per year
Indexing & Databases
ESCIScopusPubMed

Similar Journals in Discipline

Journals in the same research field with comparable impact metrics

Record UUID: 707f6175-7cf5-4ceb-ac25-c3ef4da1fc39
Database Updated: 2026-09-28