The central aim of the journal is to advance rigorous, original, and policy-relevant research that improves understanding of social and educational challenges across different national, institutional, and community contexts.

The IJSPE aims and scope reflect the close relationship between social policy and education. Educational outcomes are shaped by social protection, economic conditions, public services, family circumstances, legal frameworks, inequality, and access to opportunity. At the same time, education influences employment, social mobility, civic participation, public welfare, and long-term development. IJSPE therefore welcomes scholarship that studies these fields separately as well as research that connects them through interdisciplinary analysis.

The journal serves scholars, academicians, researchers, practitioners, and policy-oriented readers seeking evidence, theory, and critical analysis related to social policy and education research topics. It encourages contributions that move beyond description by identifying meaningful problems, applying appropriate methods, and explaining how findings contribute to policy, practice, theory, institutional development, or future research.

Social Policy Scope

Within social policy, IJSPE publishes research on the institutions, laws, programs, and social conditions that shape individual and collective well-being. The journal welcomes work examining how governments, communities, organizations, and service systems respond to economic vulnerability, inequality, exclusion, demographic change, and changing public needs.

Relevant scholarship may address social work, human rights, gender and women's studies, social welfare, welfare state policy, unemployment insurance, social security, pensions, social housing, social care, and related systems of support. Research may focus on the design, implementation, accessibility, effectiveness, or reform of such policies, including the experiences of the populations and professionals affected by them.

IJSPE also welcomes studies concerning economic policy, environmental policy, health care policy, child protection, criminal justice, and social exclusion. These areas may be examined through institutional, legal, social, behavioral, comparative, or policy-evaluation perspectives. Manuscripts may investigate how policies are formulated, how services are delivered, where inequalities arise, and how public interventions affect different communities.

Interdisciplinary social policy research is particularly relevant when it connects policy systems with education, family life, employment, health, gender, culture, or community development. For example, manuscripts may examine how social protection affects school participation, how housing instability influences educational outcomes, how child protection policies interact with schools, or how economic and environmental policies shape access to learning and social services.

The journal is open to research conducted in local, national, regional, or international contexts. Comparative studies are welcome when they offer meaningful insight into differences in policy design, implementation, governance, or outcomes. IJSPE values work that is sensitive to context while also identifying lessons that may contribute to broader academic and policy discussions.

Education Scope

Within education, IJSPE publishes research on teaching, learning, educational policy, leadership, institutions, curriculum, inclusion, and social change. The scope includes elementary and secondary education as well as research concerning special education, bilingual education, nutrition education, health promotion, learning disabilities, and international education and training.

The journal welcomes studies of curriculum and instruction, classroom management, teacher education, educational leadership, educational psychology, and experiential learning. Manuscripts may examine how teaching methods, curriculum design, professional preparation, institutional leadership, or learning environments affect students, educators, schools, and communities.

IJSPE also supports scholarship on educational technology, literacy and language learning, children's literature, comparative and international education, gender and cultural diversity in schools, and legal issues in education. Such research may explore access, participation, inclusion, identity, language, technology use, institutional change, or the relationship between educational systems and wider social conditions.

Research on peace and conflict resolution, education policy and social change, and the social responsibilities of educational institutions also falls within the journal's scope. IJSPE is interested in studies that consider education not only as a classroom process but also as a social institution connected to rights, development, public policy, culture, and community well-being.

The journal welcomes quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, theoretical, conceptual, and comparative approaches where the chosen method is appropriate to the research question. Studies should present a clear purpose, explain the relevance of the problem, engage with appropriate scholarship, and provide a reasoned interpretation of findings or arguments.

Interdisciplinary Contributions

IJSPE gives particular consideration to manuscripts that connect social policy and education in substantive ways. These may include studies of educational inequality, social mobility, welfare and school participation, gender and access to education, public health and learning, child protection and educational institutions, social exclusion, teacher policy, or the effects of economic conditions on educational opportunity.

Interdisciplinary submissions should do more than mention both fields. They should clearly explain the relationship being examined and show how that relationship contributes to knowledge, policy development, professional practice, or institutional understanding. The journal values work that helps readers see how decisions in one area may produce consequences in another.

Manuscript Types and Expected Contribution

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 focused on a defined area of social policy or education.

Regardless of format, submissions should make a clear and relevant contribution. IJSPE values manuscripts that are academically rigorous, original in purpose or interpretation, transparent in method or reasoning, and connected to significant questions in social policy or education. Policy relevance is encouraged, particularly where authors explain how their findings may inform public discussion, institutional practice, program design, professional understanding, or future research.

Prospective authors should use this page to assess whether their topic and contribution align with the journal. Before submitting, authors should also review the Author Guidelines and Submission pages for manuscript preparation requirements, editorial expectations, and the current submission process.