Into the Second Decade

The year 2023 saw Social Sciences enter its second decade after launching in 2012. The first ten years witnessed considerable growth and development—this continued in 2023. However, none of this would have been possible without the huge support and hard work of our authors, reviewers, and Editorial Board members. The dedication and efficiency of our Editorial staff across several MDPI offices ensures the smooth running of the journal.

The journal aims to appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience and authorship, focusing on real-world research. It attracts papers from a wide range of fields, including anthropology, criminology, geography, history, political science, psychology, social policy, social work, sociology, and more. It is organized into a number of sections as follows: gender; contemporary politics and society; social economics; social policy and welfare; international migration; work, employment, and the labor market; family studies; childhood and youth studies; social stratification and inequality; and international relations.

• Developments in 2023 included the following:

• The visibility of Social Sciences increased from 2,413,598 views in 2022 to 4,226,253 views in 2023—an increase of 75%. Figure 1 shows the top 10 countries.
• The authors of 2023 publications are from 65 countries, with the top six countries being the United States, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany.
• Seventeen new Editorial Board Members joined us in 2023.
  • Prof. Dr Maria Bucur;
  • Dr Xi Ji;
  • Prof. Dr Xiaoling Shu;
  • Prof. Dr Lisa Dikomitis;
  • Prof. Dr Yusung Su;
  • Prof. Dr Concha Perez Curiel;
  • Prof. Antonio Bova;
  • Dr Georgios Maris;
  • Dr Raphael Herr;
  • Prof. Dr David Smith;
  • Prof. Dr Robert Peralta;
  • Prof. Dr George J. Sefa dei;
  • Prof. Dr Kanami Tsuno;
  • Prof. Dr Suet-lin-Hung;
  • Prof. Dr William Walters;
  • Prof. Dr Kenneth Couch;
  • Prof. Dr Jonathan Simon.
• This year also saw the journal being allocated its first Impact Factor of 1.7. There was also a Cite Score of 3.2 (Q1 in the General Social Sciences Category).
• Social Sciences reinforced its status as an international journal by sponsoring the following conferences in 2023:
  • 2023 ASA Annual Meeting;
  • Bisa 2023 Conference;
  • Annual Conference for the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association;
  • Annual Meeting on Law and Society;
  • Pan-European Conference on International Relations.
• Twenty-two of our Editorial Board Members were included in the ‘World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists 2023’ list by Stanford University.
• During this year, we launched 89 Special Issues.

• Looking Forward to 2024

The primary aim for this year is to further build on the progress made over the previous eleven years, particularly in terms of the visibility of the journal, the number and quality of the submissions, and the international reach and profile of the journal in order to improve the impact factor in the future.