Disabilities, an Inter- and Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Disability Research, Achieves Significant Milestones

Disabilities has achieved several significant milestones in 2024 and 2025. Disabilities has been tracked for Impact Factor since 2024. The inaugural Impact Factor was published in June 2025, and we are pleased to announce a first Impact Factor of 1.4 [1]. The 2024 Journal Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations received in 2024 for all publications within the journal from 2022 and 2023 by the total number of citable publications from those same years. Additionally, the CiteScore has nearly doubled from 1.1 (2023) to 1.9 (2024), resulting in a ranking of Quartile 2 in the categories of Social Sciences and Health Professions [2]. The CiteScore assesses the average number of citations within a journal over a four-year period. This significant accomplishment would not have been possible without the dedicated support of the editorial staff, the members of the editorial board, and the quality reviewers.

The journal’s citations continue to demonstrate an upward trajectory. According to Google Scholar [3], the journal has accumulated more than 1180 citations to date, while Scopus reports that Disabilities has garnered over 400 citations [4].

Another important metric for journals is indexing, as it enables the reach of publications across various databases. In 2024, Disabilities has been newly indexed by several databases, including the Web of Science Core Collection (i.e., Emerging Sources Citation Index—ESCI), OpenAIRE, and BibCnrs [5].

In 2024, after rigorous peer review, Disabilities has published 69 papers (56 Articles, 7 Reviews, 3 Study Protocols, 2 Concept Papers, 1 Case Report) and one Editorial [6]. Of these, 22 papers were included in Special Issues. This means Disabilities has published more than 260 papers since the journal’s launch in 2021 [7]. The journal continues to perform well in terms of publication times. On average, the first decision is provided approximately 40 days after submission; acceptance to publication takes about 5 days.

An important development for the journal has been to establish guidelines for authors on the use of disability-related language. This recognises that the terminology used to describe disabilities varies across countries, regions, cultures, and academic disciplines, and continues to evolve over time. Going forward, authors will be required to include a positionality statement in the back matter of their articles, explicitly explaining the rationale for the disability terminology they used (e.g., person-first or identity-first language). This justification must ensure that the reasoning is in accordance with the cultural, theoretical, or disciplinary context relevant to their work. The development of these guidelines involved a consultative process with the editorial board members. The guidelines are available on the journal’s website in the Instructions for Authors [8].

In recognition of the high-quality papers submitted to Disabilities, we wish to highlight those that demonstrated notable impact [9]. The best-performing paper authored by Lindsay and Fuentes [10], titled “It Is Time to Address Ableism in Academia: A Systematic Review of the Experiences and Impact of Ableism among Faculty and Staff,” currently stands as the most cited paper (48 citations), the most viewed paper (18,662 views), and the most downloaded paper (4582 downloads). Other notable contributions include papers authored by Holland [11] (27 citations), Hendry et al. [12] (14,539 views), and Seido et al. [13] (3799 downloads).

We will continue refining the aims and scope of Disabilities [14] to stay aligned with the ever-evolving publishing landscape. We are always eager to receive new, high-quality submissions to our journal. Special Issues remain a crucial way to thematically share innovative research findings and highlight important topics. Therefore, we invite researchers to submit proposals for new Special Issue themes for consideration [15]. You can follow us on X (@Disabil_MDPI), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/disabilities-mdpi), and ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Disabilities-2673-7272).