The Interdisciplinary Journal of Rural and Community Studies (IJRCS) is a double-blind peer-reviewed "open access" journal established in early 2019 under the name "Journal of Education Research and Rural Community Development" with the publication of articles in education, rural and community studies. In January 2021, the journal was considered too encompassing during the forum's annual report and needed to be divided into two separate journals. Therefore, the rural and community development aspect was made an independent journal under the Interdisciplinary Journal of Rural and Community Studies (IJRCS), while the education research aspect was also designed to stand independently as the Interdisciplinary Journal of Education Research. This was how IJRCS came into existence in January 2021.
Definition of Terms
Hosting & Publishing Information
IJRCS is hosted, archived and maintained by the University of the Free State Library and Information Services.
IJRCS is published by ERRCD Forum. ERRCD Forum is based in South Africa and the United States of America and publishes open-access academic and peer-reviewed books and journals in education, rural and community studies, management, and social sciences. For more information, CONTACT US.
Publication Frequency
Prior to 2022, IJRCS published two issues annually under a continuous publication model. Between 2022 and 2024, the journal transitioned to publishing one issue per year while maintaining this model, allowing articles to be made available online on an article-by-article basis immediately upon acceptance and finalisation. As of January 2025, IJRCS has resumed publishing two issues annually, continuing with the continuous publication model. Articles finalised between January and June constitute Issue 1, while those finalised between July and December form Issue 2. This model combines the benefits of rapid research dissemination with the structured organisation of biannual issues.
Starting in 2024, the Journal welcomes applications for special issues and encourages prospective special guest editors to submit their proposals. Interested individuals can find detailed guidelines and submission procedures in the Special Issue Policy.
Copyright and Licensing
IJRCS is an open-access journal that provides immediate access to its published contents. Authors retain unrestricted copyright and publishing rights for all articles published from August 2023 onwards. The authors also grant the publisher permission to publish the articles and be recognised as the original and the first publisher. Articles published are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), which permits commercial re-use (download, copy, redistribute, translate, remix, adapt, and build upon materials published, etc.) of open access articles, as long as the original author and source are properly attributed. The authors grant the publisher permission to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes such as DOAJ, SABINET, J-Gate, Scopus, EBSCO, ERIC, among others. Authors also grant other third-party users the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors and citation details are acknowledged without prior permission from the publisher or the author.
Note: All articles published prior to August 2023 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives.
Open Access Policy
IJRCS provides immediate open access to readers and other users. This means that the readers and other users pay nothing to download, copy, read, print, distribute, link to the texts or use them for other lawful purposes. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. However, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is required by the authors for the life maintenance of their articles.
Self-archiving Policy
IJRCS permits and encourages authors to post items submitted to the journal on personal websites, institutional repositories, social networking sites, ResearchGate, and academia.edu, among others, both prior to and after publication while providing bibliographic details that credit, if applicable, its publication in this journal.
Publication Statistics
| Year | Total Submissions | Total Published | Acceptance Rate | Rejection Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 84 | 21 | 27% | 73% |
| 2023 | 23 | 6 | 26% | 74% |
| 2022 | 33 | 6 | 24% | 76% |
| 2021 | 40 | 10 | 25% | 75% |
| 2020 | 23 | 9 | 39% | 61% |
| 2019 | 37 | 13 | 35% | 65% |
JOURNAL INFORMATION
