Faaliyet Raporu - 2025
We are pleased to present the 2025 activity report of the International Relations journal to our stakeholders, in line with our principle of transparency.
A total of 377 articles and 21 book reviews, including those submitted for special issues, were sent to the journal between January 1 and December 31, 2025. This represents an increase of 140 additional article submissions over 2024 and 204 additional submissions over 2023.
While 304 of the 377 articles (%80,6) sent to the journal in 2025 were desk-rejected, 12 were rejected after referee reports, and their authors withdrew six. While four papers have already been accepted for publication, the evaluation of the remaining 51 is still ongoing.
The 22nd volume of the Journal, covering 85 to 88 issues, included 24 research articles and 14 book reviews. Two of the articles published were submitted in 2023, and 22 in 2024.
The average editorial first response time for submissions is 23 days. The average time from submission to publication for the 24 articles published in International Relations in 2025 is 360 days. This process includes two editorial reviews by managing editors, a review by associate editors, two rounds of anonymous peer reviews, revisions by the author(s), and a final review by the Editorial Board.
Most of the desk-rejected submissions were out of the area. Although it has become increasingly difficult to draw boundaries within the discipline with the growing interest in interdisciplinary approaches, many studies submitted to the journal were rejected because they were unrelated, even remotely, to the field of International Relations.
Other reasons for rejection included that the submitted paper lacks original contribution, does not have a theoretical and/or conceptual framework, does not have a basic question or argument, is written in the form of an opinion piece and/or report, or is a literature review without any analysis. One of the issues we are increasingly encountering is irresponsible usage of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Although we have duly adopted a relevant policy and issued specific guidelines (https://www.ir-journal.com/for-authors/generative-artificial-intelligence-usage), we are still receiving a disturbing number of papers that extensively utilize AI tools. As this area is evolving rapidly, we have decided, as a principle, to err on the side of caution until more explicit, internationally accepted norms emerge regarding the use of AI-assisted papers.
When articles with more than one author were considered, 573 authors submitted articles to the journal in 2025. Of these, 326 are researchers based in Türkiye and TRNC, and 247 are based in other countries. Of the authors, 160 are women, and 413 are men. While 6 are undergraduate students, 202 are postgraduate students, research assistants, and doctors, 95 are assistant professors, 142 are associate or full professors, and 128 are from other professions.
Of the 21 book review authors, 17 are researchers based in Turkey, and four are based in other countries. Eight are women, and 13 are men. Eighteen of the authors are graduate students, research assistants, or doctors, two are assistant professors, and one is an associate professor. The performance of International Relations in several indices has been increasing steadily. By the end of 2025, it stood at 1.7 (Q2) in Scopus CiteScore, 1.1 (Q3) in WoS SSCI JIF (2024), and 0,295 (Q2) in SCImago SJR.
International Relations has reached its current state with the support of its authors, referees, readers, and staff. We will continue to strive for excellence in our publications in 2026.
Mustafa Aydın
Editor-in-Chief