Aims & Scope

Over the past years, a new interdisciplinary and dynamic research field on religion and development has emerged. A growing corpus of literature has begun to investigate the manifold relationships and interactions of religion and development. The topic is of cross-disciplinary interest, with research spanning from religious studies and theology to anthropology, sociology, politics, economics and development studies.

Religion & Development seeks to contribute to the religion and development research field by publishing original, peer-reviewed research. The journal is interdisciplinary and welcomes contributions from across the social sciences and humanities.

Both religion and development are understood in a wide sense. Religion encompasses all forms of religious institutions, communities, networks, scenes, cultures, and phenomena. Development refers to manifold processes of social, economic, ecological, political and cultural dynamics in all parts of the world. One core frame of reference are the Sustainable Development Goals. Overarching questions are, for example, how religious communities contribute to processes of (sustainable) development, how social, economic, ecological, political and cultural dynamics affect religion and what understandings and notions of (sustainable) development exist in religious communities.

Peer Review Policy

Religion & Development is committed to publishing high quality research in the field. Each manuscript will undergo a rigorous peer review process. Submissions are first screened by the editors regarding formalities, academic quality and suitability for the journal. They are then sent to two anonymous expert reviewers for their review (double blind). Authors might be asked to revise their contributions based on the reviewers’ comments as well as potential further remarks by the editors.

Manuscript guidelines

The length of an article should be approximately 7000-8000 words. If longer articles are submitted, a brief justification should be provided.

Each article needs to include an abstract and keywords. The abstract should not exceed 250 words. Keywords should be taken from the Library of Congress subject database.

The journal has a strict non-discrimination policy. We kindly ask all authors to use inclusive language. Discriminatory language might lead to the rejection of an article.

Referencing should be done according to the Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date referencing system. Spelling can follow British English or American English, but should be consistent throughout.

To ensure a smooth review process, we kindly ask all authors to make sure that their manuscripts are proof-read before submission and adhere to the referencing style guidelines.