Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A humanities tenure review committee assessing a faculty member's philosophy of religion articles in Faith and Philosophy using peer review rigor and qualitative scholarly influence rather than requiring a commercial Clarivate Impact Factor.
- Is an instance
A philosophy department librarian noting that Faith and Philosophy provides diamond open access without author publication charges (APCs), contrasting with commercial hybrid philosophy journals like the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Disqualifying an article published in Faith and Philosophy from research assessment simply because the non-commercial society journal does not purchase or market a proprietary Clarivate Journal Impact Factor.
- Not an instance
Treating open citation measures such as 2-year mean citedness or h-index as direct substitutes for peer evaluation when reviewing philosophical arguments.
Editorial commentary
Quick answer: Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers is a premier peer-reviewed open-access journal founded in 1984. Published by the Society of Christian Philosophers in partnership with Asbury Theological Seminary and the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame, it maintains an OpenAlex h-index of 57, an i10-index of 389, and over 1,740 registered Crossref DOIs (checked 7 November 2026). As an independent society journal, it operates without author fees or commercial journal impact factor marketing.
What the Faith and Philosophy journal metrics measure
In academic philosophy, scholarly evaluation depends on rigorous conceptual argumentation rather than high-velocity citation turnover. The metrics associated with Faith and Philosophy reflect its position as an established diamond open-access venue. Unlike commercial journals that license proprietary calculation frameworks, society-published journals focus on open distribution and scholarly dialogue.
The standard Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was historically developed for subscription-based scientific and technical journals. In fields like philosophical theology, metaphysics, and normative theory (explored in our guide on what is philosophy), research retains active relevance over decades, making conventional short-window metrics inadequate descriptors of scholarly worth.
Scholarly profile and bibliometric indicators
The table below summarizes official metadata and open citation indicators for Faith and Philosophy, alongside its commercial counterpart the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, verified across Crossref and OpenAlex on 7 November 2026.
| Journal Profile Feature | Faith and Philosophy | International Journal for Philosophy of Religion |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing Body | Society of Christian Philosophers | Springer Nature |
| Access Model | Open Access (No Author APCs) | Hybrid Subscription / Gold OA |
| Print / Online ISSN | 0739-7046 / 2153-3393 | 0020-7047 / 1572-8684 |
| Registered DOIs (Crossref) | 1,747 DOIs | 1,970 DOIs |
| Bibliometric h-index (OpenAlex) | 57 | 29 |
| i10-Index (High-Impact Papers) | 389 | 112 |
| Peer Review Framework | Double-Anonymous Peer Review | Double-Anonymous Peer Review |
Calculation methodology and discipline dynamics
When institutions calculate citation impact, they frequently compare Clarivate metrics with Scopus indicators like CiteScore. However, specialized humanities journals published by academic societies often distribute their articles through university institutional repositories—such as Asbury Theological Seminary’s Digital Commons repository—rather than commercial aggregators.
Because humanities papers have extended citation half-lives (often exceeding ten years), two-year citation metrics systematically undercount substantive engagement. In philosophy of religion and philosophical ethics, citation impact accrues gradually as arguments are debated across subsequent monographs, anthologies, and symposium papers.
Institutional evaluation and ethical standards
Evaluating faculty publications requires adherence to core principles of research ethics and fair assessment standards. Tenure committees should avoid mechanical heuristics that prioritize proprietary impact metrics over article-level philosophical merit.
Furthermore, society-governed journals like Faith and Philosophy provide non-commercial alternatives to corporate journal consolidation, preserving academic ownership of research outputs without imposing financial barriers on authors or readers.
Responsible assessment and DORA recommendations
Under the DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment) principles, research evaluation must focus on the substantive content of an article rather than the metric profile or commercial prestige of the publishing journal. In philosophical research, an essay published in an independent society journal may exert transformative influence despite lacking a commercial marketing apparatus.
Grant agencies and hiring committees should examine the original argumentation, analytical rigor, and critical reception of philosophical work, ensuring assessment criteria align with disciplinary best practices.
Sources
- Society of Christian Philosophers & Asbury Theological Seminary, Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers About & Policies, https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/about.html (read 2026-11-07).
- OpenAlex Scholarly Source Catalog, Faith and Philosophy Citation Indicators (Source S4210214470), https://api.openalex.org/sources?search=Faith+and+Philosophy (read 2026-11-07).
- Crossref Metadata Index, Journal ISSN 0739-7046 Official Record, https://api.crossref.org/journals/0739-7046 (read 2026-11-07).
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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