Interest Groups and Advocacy

Aims & Scope

This journal records and analyzes the multitude of ways that advocacy by groups, movements and lobbying professionals can work to influence policy.

It also provides a focal point for significant current discussions about how these specialized interests are mobilized and maintained.

Interest Groups & Advocacy ranges widely across the international landscape of politics and society, identifying the forces, strategies, and tactics that determine policy change.

The articles published here reflect a diversity of methodologies.

The coverage includes studies that address theoretical issues, reports rigorous empirical work, and presents insight on change agents, their behavior and their impact.

In a field long dominated by American political science, the journal reflects the widening geographical footprint of advocacy.

Lobbyists have proliferated, and advocacy spending has increased in Europe, as well as in states, provinces and localities around the world.

The journal synthesizes this territorial expansion with broadened interest in the number and type of advocacy organizations.

Also noted is the changing nature of advocates, including multi-national corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and social movements - so divergent from textbook stereotypes of interest groups - that seek to influence public policies.

Although the journal is anchored within political science, it publishes research based in such other disciplines as economics, sociology, law, and history.

Also covered are social movement scholarship and public affairs, which form important components of the process of competitive advocacy that today often functions as a proxy for democratic contestation.

Interest Groups & Advocacy is the official journal of the Political Organizations and Parties section of the American Political Science Association.

View Aims & Scope

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Metrics & Ranking

Impact Factor

Year	Value
2025	1.5
2024	1.40

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

Year	Value
2024	0.454

Quartile

Year	Value
2024	Q2

h-index

Year	Value
2024	23

Journal Rank

Year	Value
2024	12538

Journal Citation Indicator

Year	Value
2024	98

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Abstracting & Indexing

Journal is indexed in leading academic databases, ensuring global visibility and accessibility of our peer-reviewed research.

• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• Web of Science

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Subjects & Keywords

Journal’s research areas, covering key disciplines and specialized sub-topics in Social Sciences, designed to support cutting-edge academic discovery.

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Licensing & Copyright

This journal operates under an Open Access model. Articles are freely accessible to the public immediately upon publication. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing users to share and adapt the work with proper attribution.

Copyright remains with the author(s), and no permission is required for non-commercial use, provided the original source is cited.

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Most Cited Articles

The Most Cited Articles section features the journal's most impactful research, based on citation counts. These articles have been referenced frequently by other researchers, indicating their significant contribution to their respective fields.

• Lobbying influence: Meaning, measurement and missing

  Citation: 131

  Authors: David

• Defining and classifying interest groups

  Citation: 122

  Authors: Laura, Brendan J, Adam, Luz Maria Muñoz, Anne

• Why interest organizations do what they do: Assessing the explanatory potential of ‘exchange’ approaches

  Citation: 116

  Authors: Joost

• Lobbying and transparency: A comparative analysis of regulatory reform

  Citation: 109

  Authors: Craig, William

• Revolving door lobbyists and interest representation

  Citation: 92

  Authors: Timothy M, Herschel F

• The Transparency Register: A European vanguard of strong lobby regulation?

  Citation: 85

  Authors: Justin, Joanna

• Customizing strategy: Policy goals and interest group strategies

  Citation: 65

  Authors: Anne Skorkjær, Simon

• The brash and the soft-spoken: Lobbying styles in a transatlantic comparison

  Citation: 59

  Authors: Cornelia

• Opening the black box: The professionalization of interest groups in the European Union

  Citation: 59

  Authors: Heike, Sabine

• The INTEREURO Project: Logic and structure

  Citation: 58

  Authors: Jan, Laura Chaqués, Andreas, Rainer, Danica, David, Christine, William, Daniel

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