About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The IJCV provides a forum for scientific exchange and public dissemination of up-to-date scientific knowledge on conflict and violence. The IJCV is independent, peer reviewed, open access, and included in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) as well as other relevant databases (e.g., SCOPUS, EBSCO, ProQuest, DNB).

The topics on which we concentrate—conflict and violence—have always been central to various disciplines. Consequently, the journal encompasses contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including criminology, economics, education, ethnology, history, political science, psychology, social anthropology, sociology, the study of religions, and urban studies.

Starting from 2017, the publication format of IJCV has been changed to reap the benefits of an online publication more fully. Thus, there are no more "issues" (as with a print journal), but instead each volume now has one or more guest-edited focus sections. The planned topics for focus sections are announced in advance on this website and in calls for papers.

In the focus sections, it is up to the respective guest editors whether articles are published simultaneously or also individually as soon as they are ready. All articles are identified by an article number and a DOI, and there will be article-wise pagination.

Criteria of scientific eligibility:

  • Pertinence to the focus of IJCV
  • Importance of findings (is there a significant contribution to knowledge?)
  • Adequacy of literature review
  • Methodological adequacy
  • Clarity of presentation (concepts, objectives, argumentation, organisation)
  • Validity of conclusions

Some of the topics we address are (in alphabetical order):

  • anti-semitism
  • conflict mediation
  • discrimination
  • ethnic wars
  • evaluation of anti-violence programs
  • experience of violence
  • gender-related violence
  • hate crimes
  • human rights
  • intergroup violence
  • language conflicts
  • perpetration of violence
  • prejudice
  • religious conflicts
  • terrorism
  • youth violence

Contributions should include empirical findings and/or advances in theory.

While the findings published in the IJCV are mainly generated by researchers, the journal’s target readership also includes other interested members of civil society and state and government institutions.

Peer Review Process

Each submission to IJCV will initially be screened by the editorial staff to see whether it meets the journal's aims, scope, and standards. For manuscripts that are eligible for review, a handling editor will be assigned. The handling editor will seek advice from two or three external reviewers who are experts in the field addressed by the manuscript. Authors may recommend potential reviewers; obviously, this should be colleagues who may provide an impartial assessment of the manuscript and who are not closely associated with the authors.

The reviewers will evaluate the manuscript following established criteria of scientific quality. The peer-review process is double blind (for details see instructions for authors). Although review times may vary, the editors will aim to provide a first decision on a manuscript within three months of submission. Possible decisions are "accept" (usually pending some minor revisions), "revise and resubmit" (with clearly specified points to be addressed), or "reject". Authors will normally be given a deadline of four weeks for resubmitting a revised manuscript; longer revision times will apply if the editor requests the collection of additional data.

Open Access Policy

IJCV provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The IJCV does not charge publication fees from authors.

Publication Fees

There are no publication fees.

Sources of Support

The logogram and the layout of the IJCV were designed by meier stracke_büro für gestaltung.

The IJCV is hosted by Bielefeld University Library.