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World Development is Scopus-indexed (Q1, CiteScore 9.3), ABDC A*, ABS / AJG 3, WoS SSCI. It is covered by India's One Nation One Subscription scheme for reading access. Published by Elsevier.
Checked against the index lists dated .
ISSN 0305-750XVerify ISSN ↗1873-5991Verify ISSN ↗
Publisher: Elsevier
Cost to publish: About US$5,895 to publish open access (publisher list price, via OpenAlex) — subscription publishing may be free
| Subject area | Rank | Pctile | Q |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociology and Political Science | 42 / 1530 | 97th | Q1 |
| Development | 17 / 314 | 94th | Q1 |
| Geography, Planning and Development | 62 / 876 | 92nd | Q1 |
| Economics and Econometrics | 71 / 755 | 90th | Q1 |
| Stage | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Submission → first decision | 35 days |
| Acceptance → online publication | 14 days |
Not listed in: DOAJ, FT50, UT Dallas, ONOS (APC covered)
Yes — actively indexed in Scopus, coverage 1973–present, best quartile Q1, CiteScore 9.3.
World Development is Q1 in Sociology and Political Science (rank 42 of 1530), Q1 in Development (rank 17 of 314) and Q1 in Geography, Planning and Development (rank 62 of 876), by CiteScore 2025. It is ranked in 4 subject areas in all.
World Development is indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index, so it may have a Journal Impact Factor in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports. JCR is paid, so check it for the current value. The closest free measure is its Scopus CiteScore 9.3, which places it in quartile Q1 at the 97th percentile of its subject. Its SCImago Journal Rank (SJR, a free Scopus-based metric) is 2.027, quartile Q1, with an H-index of 249.
The publisher lists an article processing charge of about US$5,895 for open access (source: OpenAlex). Many journals also publish by the subscription route at no cost to the author, so confirm on the journal's own website.
World Development is published by Elsevier. Its print ISSN is 0305-750X and its online ISSN is 1873-5991.
Yes. It is part of the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) national subscription, so readers at participating Indian institutions get its full text. ONOS does not cover its article processing charge.
Yes — indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index.
It is rated A* in the ABDC Journal Quality List 2025 under Applied economics.
It is graded 3 in the Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) Academic Journal Guide (AJG) 2024, in the Social Sciences field, unchanged from 2021.
No — it is not registered as an open-access journal in DOAJ or Scopus.
World Development has an h-index of 349 and a 2-year mean of 5.55 citations per paper (OpenAlex). Its Scopus CiteScore is 9.3, quartile Q1. On 2-year citations it ranks #28 of 1,478 Scopus journals in Sociology and Political Science.
World Development published 322 papers in 2025; its busiest recent year was 2020 with 403. 2026* is the year so far.
h-index, i10-index and 2-year mean citedness are open, licence-clear metrics from OpenAlex — not a proprietary impact factor. The subject rank counts only journals that OpenAlex has a figure for; it is not a Scopus or Clarivate ranking. Updated 2026-10-14.
In its latest 86 research articles (2026), authors are most often from United States (25.9%), China (9.8%) and United Kingdom (8.9%).
Countries are counted fractionally, so a paper by authors from two countries counts half to each.
Scopus status: Active. 3 retracted papers are recorded (0.3 per 1,000 papers). The Problematic Paper Screener flags 1 of its papers. These are indicators to check, not findings against the journal.
Retractions from OpenAlex; flags from the Problematic Paper Screener (Cabanac, Labbé & Magazinov, CC BY), 2026-09-21 export. A flag marks a paper for a closer look; it is not a finding against the journal.
Index data is curated from public sources (Scopus, Web of Science, ABDC, FT50, UT Dallas, DOAJ). CiteScore and quartiles reflect the latest available Scopus release. Always verify a journal's current status on its official source before submitting.
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