Scottish Affairs

Aims & Scope

Scottish Affairs, founded in 1992, is the leading forum for debate on Scottish current affairs.

Its predecessor was Scottish Government Yearbooks, published by the University of Edinburgh's 'Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland' between 1976 and 1992.

The movement towards the setting up the Scottish Parliament in the 1990s, and then the debate in and around the Parliament since 1999, brought the need for a new analysis of Scottish politics, policy and society.

Scottish Affairs provides that opportunity.

Fully peer-reviewed, it publishes articles on matters of concern to people who are interested in the development of Scotland, often setting current affairs in an international or historical context, and in a context of debates about culture and identity.

This includes articles about similarly placed small nations and regions throughout Europe and beyond.

The articles are authoritative and rigorous without being technical and pedantic.

No subject area is excluded, but all articles pay attention to the social and political context of their topics.

Thus Scottish Affairs takes up a position between informed journalism and academic analysis, and provides a forum for dialogue between the two.

The readers and contributors include journalists, politicians, civil servants, business people, academics, and people in general who take an informed interest in current affairs.

View Aims & Scope

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Metrics & Ranking

Impact Factor

Year	Value
2025	0.4
2024	0.50

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

Year	Value
2024	0.234

Quartile

Year	Value
2024	Q3

h-index

Year	Value
2024	20

Journal Rank

Year	Value
2024	19356

Journal Citation Indicator

Year	Value
2024	44

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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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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.

• Scotland, Catalonia, Europeanization and the ‘Moreno Question’

  Citation: 74

  Authors: Luis

• Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland

  Citation: 32

  Authors: Kath, Lucy

• Public Attitudes towards Migration in Scotland: Exceptionality and Possible Policy Implications

  Citation: 32

  Authors: David, Beata, Scott

• Perspectives on the Scottish identity

  Citation: 27

  Authors: T.C.

• National Identities in Post-Devolution Scotland

  Citation: 25

  Authors: Ross, Michael

• Squaring the Circles: Demonstrating and Explaining the Political ‘Non-Alignment’ of Scottish National Identity

  Citation: 24

  Authors: Ross

• ‘Not For Lipstick And Lager’: Students And Part Time Work

  Citation: 22

  Authors: Newman, Phil

• Building Social Capital: Steps Towards a Learning Society

  Citation: 20

  Authors: Tom

• The European Structural Fund Partnerships in Scotland: New Forms of Governance for Regional Developments?

  Citation: 20

  Authors: M.W., J., M.G., I.

• ‘Tied up in a legal mess’: The alcohol industry's use of litigation to oppose minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland

  Citation: 19

  Authors: Benjamin, Jim

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