Journal of Computer Science

About Journal of Computer Science

Journal of Computer Science — A Full Profile

The Journal of Computer Science is a broad-scope, peer-reviewed journal in computing, published by Science Publications and known on its publisher's platform as JCS. Its homepage, as recorded by OpenAlex, sits within the publisher's journal system at thescipub.com under the journal code jcs. It is a generalist in a field of specialists: where most computing journals stake out one territory — networks, software, intelligence, systems — this journal takes the discipline whole, and its citation record shows the result. OpenAlex has matched 3,642 works to its ISSNs, spanning mobile networks, data mining, network traffic, image work and much more, cited 27,723 times in that database at checking time. This profile anchors the journal's identity to its ISSN pair, 1549-3636 (print) and 1552-6607 (online), sets out what its published record shows about its scope, reports its metrics with their sources, and deals directly with the journal's single biggest practical problem — its name, which it shares, confusingly, with some of the most famous titles in computing.

That name problem deserves the first paragraph of practical advice in this profile, because it governs everything else. "Journal of Computer Science" is close to The Computer Journal (Oxford University Press, published on behalf of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, since 1958; ISSNs 0010-4620 and 1460-2067), close to Journal of Computers (an Academy Publisher title, electronic ISSN 1796-203X), and close to a long tradition of Chinese computing scholarship published under a very similar English name. These are different journals with different publishers, different ISSNs and different histories. The journal profiled here is the Science Publications title with ISSNs 1549-3636 and 1552-6607. Any verification — for a tenure file, a library list, a funder report — that does not run through those two numbers is not a verification of this journal at all. A deep profile of Journal of Computers held on this very site makes the same point from the other side, explicitly distinguishing itself from this journal and quoting this journal's ISSNs to do so; the two records are neighbours by name only, not duplicates.

At a Glance

Identity and ISSNs — The Only Safe Anchor

OpenAlex resolves ISSN 1549-3636 to a single source record carrying both ISSNs, the exact title Journal of Computer Science, and the host organisation Science Publications, and ISSN 1552-6607 resolves to the same record. That dual resolution is the identity check that matters. The stored JournalsWorld record carried the same pair, in the same roles, and a coverage span of 2008–2026, while OpenAlex's matched works begin in 2005 — a small discrepancy of the kind databases routinely produce when they ingest backfiles at different times, and a reason to treat any single coverage line as a database statement rather than a founding certificate. No founding year is claimed in this profile beyond those two dated records, because no fetched official source stated one in terms this profile could verify.

Practically, the ISSN pair should appear in every serious mention of the journal. Citation styles that reduce the journal to its abbreviated title invite confusion with the Oxford title and with similarly abbreviated society journals across computing. Authors who have published here should list the ISSNs in CVs and institutional repositories; readers who find a paper attributed to "J. Comput. Sci." should check the ISSN or the publisher before assuming which journal carried it. This is not pedantry — in a field where hiring and promotion committees verify venues, an ambiguous generalist title is a real liability, and the ISSN pair is the complete cure for it.

Publisher — Science Publications

Science Publications is the publisher named by OpenAlex's host-organisation field for this source and by SCImago-derived listings alike. It operates a multi-journal platform — the thescipub journal system — of which this journal's jcs code forms one part, and it publishes across science and engineering beyond computing. The JournalsWorld stored record once reduced that publisher to a bare number, which is a data error, not a fact; the verified publisher is Science Publications. One further identity detail shows why care is needed with database fields: OpenAlex's country field for this source reads AE, while SCImago-derived summaries have described the publisher's country as the United States. Those fields describe different things in different databases and could not be reconciled from a fetched official source, so this profile makes no country claim for the publisher and reports the conflict instead of hiding it. Authors who need the publisher's legal domicile for a contract or a compliance check should obtain it from the publisher directly.

Scope — What the Published Record Shows

A generalist journal's real scope is the sum of what it has actually published, and OpenAlex's topic classification of this journal's 3,642 works gives that sum unusual clarity. The largest topic is Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (218 works) — the decentralised wireless networking research that flourished as mobile and sensor systems spread. Data Mining and Machine Learning Applications follows (167 works), then Network Traffic and Congestion Control (152 works), then Image Retrieval and Classification Techniques (142 works). Read together, those clusters sketch a journal whose historical centre sat in networks and applied intelligent systems: how devices connect, how traffic behaves, how data is mined, how images are found and labelled. SCImago's category placement tells the same story from the indexing side, classing the journal under Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networks and Communications, and Software.

For a submitting author, breadth cuts both ways, and this profile states both. The advantage is genuine: an interdisciplinary computing paper — a machine learning method applied to network security, an image technique with a systems implementation, a software engineering study with an algorithmic core — does not face the scope rejection that a narrow journal would issue, because the journal's territory is the whole discipline. The cost is audience focus: a generalist journal's readers arrive from every corner of computing, so a paper must motivate itself to non-specialists in its own subfield more carefully than it would in a venue where every reader shares its background. Papers that thrive in broad journals state their problem in general computing terms in the introduction, however specialised the technique becomes later. Authors should also expect the journal's breadth to mean its reviewer pool is wide; a clear statement of the subfield, the method family and the evaluation standard being followed helps the editorial process place the manuscript with reviewers who work to that standard.

Metrics — The Strongest Citation Record in This Batch

OpenAlex, resolved from the ISSN and checked on 25 October 2026, records 3,642 works for this source, of which 3,157 are open access, with 27,723 citations, an h-index of 56, an i10-index of 770 and a two-year mean citedness of about 1.12. Each of those figures leads the four journals profiled in this batch: the largest output, the largest citation total, the highest h-index and the highest two-year citedness. The JournalsWorld stored record, from SCImago-derived data, carried a lower h-index of 41, and older SCImago-derived summaries put the h-index lower still (38 in one, 34 in an earlier year) with an SJR of about 0.20 and Q4 placings in all three categories. The upward drift across those snapshots is what a growing citation record looks like when different databases photograph it at different moments. The rule stands as it does for every journal here: quote a figure with its database and its date, or do not quote it.

Two interpretive cautions keep those numbers honest. First, volume flatters totals: a journal that has published more than three and a half thousand works accumulates citations in aggregate even when the typical paper is modestly cited, and the two-year mean of about 1.12 — respectable for a Q4 generalist — is the better guide to what an individual new paper might expect. Second, the h-index gap between OpenAlex (56) and the Scopus-derived record (41) is larger than for most journals, reflecting how much of this journal's citing literature sits in sources OpenAlex covers and Scopus-derived snapshots taken earlier did not. Neither caution erases the central fact: by the standards of broad, accessible computing journals, this title carries a substantial, verifiable citation footprint, built over two decades of continuous publication.

Access, Indexing and Charges

The access picture is mixed and should be described exactly. OpenAlex classifies most of the journal's works — 3,157 of 3,642 — as open access, yet does not flag the source itself as a fully open access journal, and a DOAJ search for both ISSNs, run for this profile, returned no record. The accurate statement is therefore that the great majority of its articles are openly readable while no DOAJ listing could be verified; authors whose funders require a DOAJ-listed venue, or a specific licence, must confirm the journal's current terms with the publisher before submitting. Its indexing backbone is its Scopus-derived presence, reflected in the SCImago listing and categories above. Article processing charges could not be verified from a fetched source for this profile — the publisher's journal pages could not be retrieved in this session — so charges are reported as not publicly disclosed here rather than estimated, and the same applies to current review timelines and the named editorial board. Those are facts an author can obtain from the publisher's live pages in minutes, and inventing them in a directory profile would serve no one.

How to Submit

Submission runs through Science Publications' journal platform, where the journal sits under the code jcs, as recorded in OpenAlex's homepage field. Because the live author instructions could not be fetched for this profile, the guidance here is confined to what the journal's record supports. Prepare the manuscript as a self-contained computing contribution: problem stated for a general computing reader, method placed in its subfield's terms, evaluation conducted to that subfield's recognised standard — shared datasets, baseline comparisons and honest limitations where the field expects them. Identify the work's ISSN-anchored venue correctly in any cover correspondence, using the full title and ISSNs, to keep the manuscript's record clean from the first step. Confirm the current charges, licence and timeline on the publisher's pages before completing submission, since those terms could not be verified here and the publisher's live statement governs. After publication, deposit the work with its ISSNs recorded, so that the paper's own trail never feeds the name confusion described at the head of this profile.

Is This Journal Right for Your Paper?

This journal fits when the paper is sound, applied or interdisciplinary computing that benefits from a broad readership, when the authors value an openly readable article in a long-running generalist venue, and when its citation record — substantial for its class — meets the institutional requirement in play. Its historical strengths in networks, data mining and applied intelligence make it a natural home for work in those veins and their modern descendants. It fits less well when a paper needs a specialist community's concentrated attention, when a venue's prestige tier rather than its readership is the deciding factor, or when a funder mandates a DOAJ listing that could not be verified here. And one fit test is unique to this journal: if your evaluation committee may confuse your venue with a famous near-namesake, in either direction, document the ISSNs alongside the publication from the start. Handled that way, the name is a manageable quirk rather than a risk.

Similar Journals to Compare

The honest comparison set begins with the near-namesakes, precisely so they can be told apart: The Computer Journal (Oxford University Press, for BCS; ISSNs 0010-4620 and 1460-2067), a society flagship with a history from 1958; and Journal of Computers (Academy Publisher; electronic ISSN 1796-203X), a distinct title whose own profile on this site draws the same distinction from its side. Beyond those, authors weighing generalist computing venues commonly compare specialist alternatives in the journal's own strongest areas — networking journals for the ad hoc and traffic work, machine learning and data mining journals for the applied intelligence work, and image processing journals for the retrieval and classification work. Compare each on verified ISSN, publisher, charges and current category data. This journal's case rests on breadth, volume of openly readable content, and a two-decade citation record — a combination the specialist titles, by design, do not offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the ISSNs of the Journal of Computer Science?
1549-3636 (print) and 1552-6607 (online). OpenAlex resolves both to the same source. Use them in every verification, because the title alone is ambiguous.

Who publishes it?
Science Publications, named by both OpenAlex's host-organisation field and SCImago-derived listings. Its journal platform carries the title under the code jcs.

Is it the same as The Computer Journal or Journal of Computers?
No. The Computer Journal is the Oxford University Press journal for BCS (ISSNs 0010-4620, 1460-2067); Journal of Computers is an Academy Publisher title (ISSN 1796-203X). This journal is the Science Publications title with ISSNs 1549-3636 and 1552-6607.

What are its metrics?
OpenAlex at checking time (25 October 2026): 3,642 works, 27,723 citations, h-index 56, i10-index 770, two-year mean citedness about 1.12. The SCImago-derived record carried an h-index of 41 and Q4 placings in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networks and Communications, and Software. Quote figures with their source.

What does it publish?
Computer science in full breadth. Its largest topics in OpenAlex are mobile ad hoc networks, data mining and machine learning applications, network traffic and congestion control, and image retrieval and classification.

Is it open access or listed in DOAJ?
Most of its works (3,157 of 3,642 in OpenAlex) are openly readable, but a DOAJ search for its ISSNs returned no record at checking time, so no DOAJ listing is claimed. Confirm licence terms with the publisher if a mandate applies.

What are its charges and timelines?
Could not be verified from a fetched source in this session; they are not publicly disclosed in the material retrieved here. Take both from the publisher's live journal pages before submitting.

How the Journal's Record Should Be Weighed by Institutions

Because this journal's title invites confusion and its database records disagree with each other more than most, institutions evaluating work published here should follow a short, strict routine. Verify the venue by ISSN pair — 1549-3636 and 1552-6607 — against the article itself, not by title alone. Take citation figures from one named database, with its date, rather than mixing an OpenAlex h-index with a Scopus-based expectation. Check the individual article's own citation and readership record where the evaluation concerns a specific paper, since a generalist journal's spread between its most and least cited work is wide. And where a requirement turns on charges, licences or listing status, obtain the publisher's current statement directly, because — as this profile records — several of those fields could not be verified from public sources in this session and database country fields for the publisher conflict. Followed consistently, that routine protects both evaluators and authors: the journal's genuine two-decade record is substantial enough to stand on verified facts, and no one needs borrowed prestige from a near-namesake, in either direction, to make the case for or against it.

Sources and Verification Note

This profile rests on the OpenAlex source record resolved from ISSNs 1549-3636 and 1552-6607 (checked 25 October 2026), SCImago-derived category and publisher data, DOAJ searches for both ISSNs on the same date, and the on-site profile of Journal of Computers (post 346952), whose own disambiguation text independently confirms this journal's publisher and ISSN pair. The publisher's live pages could not be retrieved in this session; fields depending on them are marked unverified rather than filled in.