PRIO Guide to Migration Journals

African and Black Diaspora seeks to 'broaden and deepen our understanding of the lived experiences of people of African descent across the globe'. It is interdisciplinary in a broader way than many other migration journals and includes, for instance, humanities-based studies of film and literature as well as accounts of historical experiences and representations. African and Black Diaspora also publishes articles on contemporary migration dynamics, similar to those that are published in general migration journals. See African Diaspora regarding the difference between the two journals.

African Diaspora has the subtitle 'A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World' and is open to both historical and contemporary perspectives. It resembles African and Black Diaspora in its scope, but is oriented more towards Europe and Africa (as opposed to North America) and has somewhat stronger links with migration studies (as opposed to Black studies and cultural studies). From 2012 to 2014 the Dutch research council NWO provided funding for African Diaspora to be an open-access journal, and citations per article were high. After it reverted to subscription funding, citations have plummeted.

Anti-Trafficking Review explores trafficking in the broader context of gender, labour, and migration. It is published by The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) and seeks to be a space for dialogue between academics, practitioners, trafficked persons and advocates. The journal successfully combines its activist foundation with the academic integrity of other journals in the field. Each issue is devoted to a specific theme and submissions but therefore respond to a call for papers, which is published on the journal web site about six months before the submission deadline.

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal is published in association with the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) in the Philippines and covers migration within and from Asia and the Pacific. The majority of articles are written by authors based in the region. The journal does not have a specific disciplinary orientation but often engages with other thematic fields such as labour relations, gender studies, and education. SMC is one of the migration study centers of the Scalabrinians, a Catholic community devoted to care for migrants and the study of migration.

Central and Eastern European Migration Review is a general migration journal focused on migration within, in to and out of Central and Eastern Europe. It is published by the Centre of Migration Research (Univeraity of Warsaw) and and the Polish Academy of Sciences and a large part of the articles relate to Polish migration. Authors and editorial board members come from across Eastern, Central and Western Europe.

Comparative Migration Studies is a general migration journal with a particular emphasis on comparative research. Within this common frame, articles vary greatly in the nature and prominence of comparison. The journal is published in association with IMISCOE, Europe's largest network of scholars in the area of migration and integration. The article processing charge is waived for authors based at an IMISCOE member institute.

Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture situates itself at the interface of migration studies and cultural studies. Most articles can be said to take a cultural-studies approach to a migration-related theme, for instance by analyzing representations of migration in film or literature, or the intersections of migration with digital media or identity politics. The journal also includes poetry, interviews and other non-traditional formats. A detail attesting to the journal's unusual profile is that submissions are not uploaded to an online portal but emailed to the editor.

Ethnic and Racial Studies aims to be 'the leading journal for the analysis of the role of race, racism, ethnicity, migration and forms of ethno-nationalism'. In other words, the journal's coverage overlaps with that of other general migration journals, but also extends into themes such as race relations or national identity regardless of whether a migration context is part of the analysis.

Ethnicities covers ethnicity, nationalism and identity politics, with or without a migration component. The closest neighbours of Ethnicities in terms of cross-citations are Ethnic and Racial Studies and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. It is an interdisciplinary journal, though with strongest affinities with sociology and politics.

European Journal of Migration and Law addresses migration law and policy with an emphasis on European countries and institutions. It is based in the Netherlands, where there has long been fertile interaction between legal and social-scientific scholarship on migration. The editorial introduction to the first issue of the journal, in 1999, explicitly stated that the journal should contribute to bridging this gap.

Global Networks has the subtitle a journal of transnational affairs and covers a range of topics within and beyond migration studies, from global value chains to transnational families. The journal's aims and scope no not mention migration, but roughly half the articles have migration-related words in the title or abstract. Many of the articles deal specifically with migrant transnationalism.

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies is a migration journal with a broad scope, but with a concentration of articles on migration control, migrant trajectories, and border management. The journal's publisher Inderscience has been the object of online discussions about quality and legitimacy, but several of their other journals are indexed in Web of Science.

International Migration is owned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and edited independently by an editorial team based at academic institutions. The current editors, based in Istanbul and Amsterdam, took over in 2020. The journal has traditionally had a focus on empirical research and policy implications, and maintains a commitment to bridge-building between research and policy.

International Migration Review, generally known as IMR, has perhaps been regarded as the most prestigious of all migration journals, though others are now also in position to vie for that role. The journal is owned by the Centre for Migration Studies in New York and the editors have been professors at universities in the US and Canada. The IMR's 50-year history and profile was reviewed in an introductory article) to the anniversary special issue in 2014.

IZA Journal of Development and Migration is published in association with IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Germany, hence the name. It was originally launched in 2012 as 'IZA Journal of Migration'. In 2017 the journal merged with 'IZA Journal of Labor' to form the IZA Journal of Development and Migration. The journal does not focus specifically on the migration-development nexus, but covers all aspects on the economics of development and the economics of migration. There is no stated maximum length for articles.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, generally known as JEMS, is a well-established general migration journal. It started out as 'Community' and later 'New Community' in the 1970s before being given its current name in 1998. The journal rose to international prominence under the 2000-2013 editorship of Russell King (University of Sussex) and has thereafter continued its rise in volume and influence. In recent years, JEMS has published over 300 articles and been cited more than 5000 times.

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies began as Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Services with an emphasis on issues affecting the lives of newcomers, especially in the United States. It is today more similar in scope to other general migration journals. The journal's aims and scope state that it 'is unique in its character as it covers both migration and refugee studies'. This is somewhat misleading since all the general migration journals consider refugee issues integral to migration studies. However, the proportion of articles specifically about refugees is higher in Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. The journal has had a remarkable growth in the number of citations over the past few years.

Journal of International Migration and Integration, often referred to as JIMI, is a general migration journal with a primary focus on arrival, settlement and integration in high-income countries, including policy aspects of these processes. The journal grew out of the International Metropolis Project, a partnership of policy-makers, researchers and civil-society representatives. Canada has played a key role in this initiative and about a quarter of JIMI articles are written by Canada-based authors.

Journal of Migration History is a relatively new journal that serves a field that was already well established but lacked a scholarly arena of its own. Previously, articles on migration history were scattered across more general history journals, area studies journals, or migration journals that were open to historical contributions. Many articles cover 20th-century issues that are direct precursors to migration processes that are still unfolding.

Journal of Refugee Studies presents itself as 'a forum for exploration of the complex problems of forced migration and national, regional and international responses', within and beyond the legal category of refugees. It is the leading journal in its field, published in association with the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Articles in the Journal of Refugee Studies often cite, and are cited by, articles in general migration journals such as JEMS and IMR.

Journal on Migration and Human Security is a policy-oriented journal committed to 'widely shared goals' in the field of migration management and immigrant integration. It is owned by the Center for Migration Studies, which also owns the IMR but is edited by the centre's director and has an almost entirely US-based editorial board. A subtle indicator of the journal's profile is that the articles have an 'executive summary' rather than an abstract.

Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studiescovers research on migration from, to, and within the Middle East and North Africa. The journal is one of the few that are not published by a major publisher. And although the editorial and technical production might be just as good, this might be part of the explanation why the journal does not have wider reach.

Migration and Development is a relatively new journal, launched on the back of surging interest in the links between migration and development. It was hosted initially by the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, and currently has its editorial base at the International Institute of Migration and Development. Over half the editorial board is based in Asia.

Migration and Society is a newly launched general migration journal which, like some others, welcomes contributions from artists and practitioners as well as from academics. It is published alongside its sister journals Conflict and society, Environment and society and Religion and society which are all anthropology-based, yet interdisciplinary journals.

Migration Letters is a general migration journal that stands out primarily by virtue of its short articles. It was established on the model of other 'letters' journals that offer rapid publication of concise papers, though with a word limit that is much lower than that of Migration Letters.

Migration Studies was launched in 2013 by a team of early-career scholars at the University of Oxford and has been an unquestionable success. The journal prioritizes 'methodological, comparative and theoretical advances' rather than empirical case studies of the type that dominate most other migration journals. Migration Studies has recently loosened its Oxford affiliation by disbanding its locally based advisory board and establishing a new new Global Editorial Board.

Nordic Journal of Migration Research is a general migration journal that gives priority to 'Nordic issues', but is open to submissions from other geographical contexts. About two thirds of authors are based in the Nordic region. The journal was created as a continuation of Norwegian and Finnish migration journals. The Nordic Journal of Migration Research has attracted submissions from leading migration researchers from other parts of the world.

Population, Space and Place was originally launched as the International Journal of Population Geography and later became Population, Space and Place. It aims to be ' the leading English-language research journal in the field of population geography and in geographical population studies'. The vast majority of articles are migration-related. The remaining minority cover issues such as housing dynamics, spatial differences in fertility, and geographies of health.

Refugee Survey Quarterly began as a journal with thematic issues only (like the Anti-Trafficking Review) but now publishes three regular issues and one special issue in every volume. The journal's thematic scope resembles that of the Journal of Refugee Studies and the two journals have very similar geographical distribution of authorship (almost two thirds European with the remaining third split between North America and the rest of the world).