Apr 26, 2021

Announcing the Global Social Challenges Journal

Non-profit, open access publishing for change.

Bristol University Press is delighted to announce the call for papers for its first fully open-access journal launching in 2022: Global Social Challenges Journal.

“I’m proud to see Bristol University Press launching this important new journal, which promises to address the most urgent complexities of global social challenges by drawing together accessible international scholarship across the disciplines to inform policy and practice.”
Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, University of Bristol

Editors in Chief  

Shenggen Fan, China Agricultural University, China 
Siddharth Mallavarapu, Shiv Nadar University, India
Bronwen Morgan, UNSW, Sydney, Australia 
Sue Scott, Newcastle University, UK 
David Simon, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK 
Julie Thompson Klein, Wayne State University, USA

We are continuing to build our global editorial team.  See our current editorial team and board members.

Aims and scope

How can we re-imagine society in an era of climate change, pandemic, hunger, poverty, and other pressing global societal challenges? Significant threats and dangers lie ahead of us, but so do opportunities, as new ways of being 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. It will be the first such journal to be based in the social sciences, while also engaging with research from humanities, arts and STEM. Emphasising marginalised, minority and indigenous world views, the journal will be an important home for research that contributes to the creation of alternative futures that acknowledge past injustices and are socially and environmentally just and sustaining.  

The Global Social Challenges Journal will facilitate the publication of trans-, multi-, and interdisciplinary research internationally within and beyond academia as well as welcoming single- discipline work. Engaging with innovative and critical perspectives, including decolonial and Southern epistemologies, it will respond directly to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encompass co-production and other participatory approaches. The journal will showcase 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 will enable the sharing of knowledge needed to help build a fairer world, across and for the global south and north.   

Call for papers

Be among the first to publish in this transformative, mission-driven, open-access journal.

We welcome submissions for research articles which reflect the themes of the journal and are of 5,000 to 10,000 words including references.  However, contributions should not be constrained by length, and we will consider different word counts that are appropriate to the findings.  We expect to publish non-traditional outputs, including shorter debate pieces, linked articles with interdisciplinary comment and policy papers, and to encourage video, podcast and blog content to accompany articles in order to reach a wide audience. Full details will be forthcoming during 2021. 

The journal aims to encourage inclusivity and diversity in publishing. We welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners at all career stages from around the world.

The first content will be published online in 2022. Our instructions for authors and article submission site will be available in due course. In the meantime, if you are interested in submitting to the journal, please email info@globalsocialchallenges.com.

Themes

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 Arts 
Technology, Data and Society

Open Access

The journal will operate on a Gold Open Access basis. As a not-for-profit endeavour, any surplus is reinvested, and we offer discounts and waivers on Author Processing Charges (APCs) for those without funding and in low and middle income countries. Learn more about our APCs and Open Access options for journals.    

Stay up to date

Follow @GSC_Journal on Twitter and join our mailing list for the latest news from the Global Social Challenges Journal. 

BUP has worked in partnership with academic colleagues from a range of disciplines at the University of Bristol, who have steered the journal’s development and provided invaluable input.