The mission of the IJSPE journal is to provide an international forum for scholarship that contributes to knowledge, supports critical inquiry, and connects research with policy and practice. Social policy and education are deeply interdependent. Educational opportunities are influenced by economic conditions, social protection, family structures, legal frameworks, public institutions, and patterns of inequality. Education, in turn, shapes employment, civic participation, social mobility, community development, and public welfare. IJSPE encourages research that examines these relationships with depth and practical relevance.

The journal is published in print and online. Its print ISSN is 2689-4998, its online ISSN is 2689-5013, and its DOI prefix is 10.61494/ijspe. IJSPE publishes multiple issues each year and maintains a permanent archive of its published volumes, issues, and articles.

Published by the International Center for Promoting Knowledge

IJSPE is published by the International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK), which operates from the USA and Bangladesh. As the ICPK publisher for IJSPE, the organization supports the journal's academic publishing activities and its broader commitment to promoting knowledge, research communication, and academic development.

ICPK's publishing mission is grounded in the principle that scholarly knowledge should circulate across institutions, countries, and professional communities rather than remain limited by geography or access barriers. Through IJSPE, ICPK provides a platform for researchers working in different educational, social, economic, and cultural settings to contribute to a shared international conversation.

This international orientation is especially important in social policy and education research. Policies and educational systems are shaped by local histories and institutional realities, yet many of the challenges they address cross borders. Questions involving social welfare, human rights, educational access, gender, public health, social exclusion, school leadership, teacher education, and economic inequality benefit from comparative perspectives and evidence drawn from diverse contexts. IJSPE therefore supports scholarship that is locally grounded while remaining relevant to wider academic and policy discussions.

Open Access and Scholarly Accessibility

IJSPE is a fully open-access journal. Each article is available without a subscription, paywall, or reader-side fee. Researchers, students, practitioners, educators, policymakers, and members of the public can therefore access its published work regardless of institutional affiliation.

As an open access journal, IJSPE regards accessibility as a central part of scholarly communication. Research has greater potential value when it can reach the people, communities, institutions, and professionals who may use it. Open access supports wider reading, teaching, discussion, and citation while allowing published work to reach audiences across regions and institutional settings.

The same principle applies to the journal archive. Earlier issues remain freely available alongside the current issue, preserving the published record and enabling continued access to older scholarship without additional charges.

Double-Blind Peer Review

Every manuscript considered for publication is evaluated through double-blind peer review. Under this model, author and reviewer identities are concealed from one another during assessment. Each manuscript is reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers.

Double-blind peer review supports evaluation based on the quality, relevance, clarity, originality, and academic contribution of the manuscript. It helps reviewers focus on the work itself while reducing the influence of author identity, affiliation, reputation, or location. For an international and interdisciplinary journal, this is important because submissions may come from researchers working in varied national and institutional environments.

Each submission is first screened by the editor for scope and general suitability. Manuscripts that proceed are sent to two reviewers, after which an editorial decision is rendered. Possible outcomes are acceptance, acceptance with minor revisions, major revision and resubmission, or rejection. The journal aims to provide a review decision within approximately three weeks of submission.

Reviewer and editor coordination currently takes place through direct editorial communication and email. The website supports author submission and administrative status management, while scholarly assessment remains a human-led process based on editorial screening, independent review, and considered decision-making.

Interdisciplinary Scope

The International Journal of Social Policy and Education brings together scholarship from two broad and closely related areas. Within social policy, the journal welcomes research on how societies design, administer, and evaluate systems intended to protect welfare, promote rights, reduce exclusion, and respond to social and economic needs. Representative subjects include social work, human rights, gender and women's studies, social security, health care policy, child protection, housing, pensions, environmental policy, criminal justice, and the welfare state.

Within education, IJSPE welcomes research on learning, teaching, policy, leadership, institutions, inclusion, and educational change. Relevant areas include elementary and secondary education, special and bilingual education, curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, educational technology, literacy and language learning, teacher education, classroom management, leadership, comparative education, and education policy.

The journal also encourages work that crosses disciplinary boundaries. A study may examine how poverty affects school participation, how social protection influences educational opportunity, how gender shapes access to learning, or how legal and institutional reforms affect both welfare and educational systems. Such work reflects the journal's view that social policy and education are often best understood together rather than in isolation.

International Editorial and Advisory Perspective

IJSPE is guided by an international editorial board and international advisory board whose members are connected with institutions and professional settings across several countries. Their perspectives support the journal's international orientation and interdisciplinary character.

The Editor-in-Chief is Joseph M. Stevenson, Ph.D. The broader editorial and advisory structure includes scholars and professionals from the USA, Bangladesh, India, Algeria, Turkey, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Full names, roles, and affiliations are available on the journal's Editorial Board page.

This international structure helps IJSPE remain attentive to varied academic traditions, policy environments, and educational contexts while supporting research that speaks beyond a single country or institutional system.

Indexing Development

IJSPE is currently pursuing and applying for inclusion in recognized academic databases. It does not presently claim listing or indexing in DOAJ, EBSCO, Cabell's, Index Copernicus, Ulrich's, or comparable databases.

The journal communicates this status transparently while continuing to strengthen its publishing practices, editorial documentation, article presentation, and discoverability. Prospective authors and librarians should evaluate IJSPE on the basis of its stated policies, published content, peer-review model, open-access commitment, and continued development toward broader academic visibility.

What IJSPE Publishes

IJSPE welcomes original research papers, review papers, conceptual frameworks, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes, and book reviews. The journal may also publish occasional themed special issues when a focused collection can make a meaningful contribution to a particular area of social policy or education.

Submissions should present a clear scholarly purpose, engage appropriately with relevant literature, use suitable methods or analytical reasoning, and explain their contribution to research, policy, practice, or theory. Interdisciplinary manuscripts are especially welcome when they create meaningful connections between social policy and education.

Prospective authors should review the Author Guidelines before preparing a manuscript and consult the Submission page for current requirements and the available submission process.