Pluto Journals publishes an international range of Open Access, radical, scholarly journals that are at the cutting edge of Social Science research. Explore a bespoke selection put together by Pluto Journals Manager, Eve Kanram.
I’m Eve Kanram, Journals Manager at Pluto Journals, where I support 20 of our social science Journals. I am also the Project Coordinator at Pluto Educational Trust, the charity that owns Pluto Journals and is home to a variety of organisations, including Pluto Press, the Decolonial Centre, the Ameena Gafoor Institute, and the Left Book Club.
I have a background in Human Geography, and was drawn to Pluto Journals for its diverse collection of social science titles and the opportunity to help bring valuable research to a wider audience. When I started working with Pluto in 2020, I was especially interested in being involved in plans to transition the subscription system to an Open Access model, a movement that I strongly support, as it removes barriers in research and ensures that everyone, regardless of affiliation or financial means, can benefit from scholarly work. I am pleased to share that Pluto Journals successfully flipped its entire collection to Open Access in January 2021 and saw a 547% increase in usage in that year alone. Usage has continued to grow year on year.
Pluto Journals, which was launched in 2008 by African academic historian and Book Publisher, Roger van Zwanenberg, is now home to 26 Open Access titles that explore themes of social justice, power dynamics, and the intersections of identity, race, gender and global issues with a strong commitment to amplifying perspectives from the Global South.
Our titles include:
1. International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies (IJCDS)
Launched in 2018, the International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies (IJCDS) is managed by the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The journal is an interdisciplinary platform designed to foster knowledge that deepens our understanding of diversity in both local and global contexts.
The journal tackles the complex challenges facing diverse societies, particularly within the post-apartheid South African landscape. It provides a forum for critically examining structures of power that uphold privilege and perpetuate oppression. Topics in IJCDS range from social constructions of identity, race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, and age to broader issues such as historical politics, geographical dynamics, and knowledge production. This makes IJCDS a key resource for those interested in addressing social injustices and reframing notions of difference.
The most recent issue of IJCDS Liberation Conversations: To Imagine and Build, aims to conceptualise diversity and diversity studies and its myriad topics from an Indigenous perspective.
Articles include:
- A’joot : Ethics, Rights and Values Spoken from the Stomach and Heart by Araceli Rojas
- Decolonisation, Globalisation and South Africa 1 by Liepollo Pheko
- African Approaches to Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property, Development and the Contested Meanings of Decolonisation by Ntokozo Dladla
The Journal is a bi-annual, peer-reviewed journal published in June and December.
2. Journal of Global Faultlines
The Journal of Global Faultlines provides a critical lens on global issues, with a strong focus on international and global studies. It integrates diverse economic, political, cultural, and social perspectives to address pressing global challenges from multiple, intersecting viewpoints. Through both theoretical and empirical explorations, this journal offers a platform for readers to engage with dominant debates shaping 21st-century global developments and is helpful to anyone interested in critical global studies and the underlying forces shaping our world today.
The latest issue of Journal of Global Faultlines explores themes such as war, borders, migration, imperialism, and the tragic loss of lives during war and migration.
The issue was edited by Bulent Gokay, Professor of International Relations at Keele University, and Lily Hamourtziadou, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Security at Birmingham City University, as well as the Principal Researcher for Iraq Body Count. Both are authors of Human Costs of War: 21st Century (In)Security from 2003 Iraq to 2022 Ukraine.
Read articles:
- Beyond Statistics: The Theory, Practice and Purpose of Casualty Recording by Hollie Dales
- Challenges to Building Social Cohesion in Conflict-Laden Areas: The A’zaz Case in Northwest Syria (2016–2022) by Omar Garebo
- As UNITAD is Now Over: Charting the Path Toward Justice in Iraq by Alannah Travers
Journal of Global Faultlines is published twice a year in July and December.
Read the Journal of Global Faultlines
3. ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
ReOrient is an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to challenging Western hegemony by reconsidering global phenomena through a decolonial lens. The journal advocates for post-positivist, post-Orientalist, and post-Eurocentric approaches by studying social, political, cultural, and economic processes within the Islamicate world. By questioning established Western-centric views, ReOrient opens a space for alternative discourses, facilitating a deeper understanding of the complexities of the Islamic world across historical and contemporary contexts.
The latest issue of ReOrient is a special issue on The Qur’an and the Humanities. The issue showcases the significance of a purposefully multidisciplinary examination of the Qur’an and its myriad dimensions as a way to firmly situate Qur’anic studies as an integral part of the Humanities, beyond specific silos of technical specialisations.
Articles include:
- Toward a Post-Orientalist Conception of Qur’anic Studies 1 by Tehseen Thaver
- In Search of Chronology: Narratives of Qur’anic Evolution in Western Academia 1 by Emmanuelle Stefanidis
ReOrient is published biannually in spring and summer.
4. Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies
The Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies offers an important academic space to examine the system of indentureship – a distinct form of unfree labour that significantly impacted social, economic, and cultural dynamics across the world. Despite its historical significance, indentureship remains under-researched, making this journal unique in its dedication to the topic.
The Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies not only features academic essays but also invites creative contributions, such as fiction and poetry, that engage with the theme of indentureship. By encouraging dialogue across fields like history, geography, sociology, and literature, the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies aims to enhance our understanding of the profound and lasting impact of the indentured labour system.
The most recent issue of the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies examines the complex relationship between indentured workers’ physical realities and the cultural impact of their experiences. Through historical analysis, literary exploration and artistic representation, Indentured bodies/embodiments of indenture considers the body as both a site of historical inscription and a medium of cultural expression, remembrance, and survival.
Contributions include:
- Promiscuous, diseased and unfit: Discourses and embodiments of Indian indentured women across the British Empire, c. 1840–1920 by Morag Flora Wright
- Indentured impressions: The embodied materiality of artistic practices in Mauritius by Baishali Ghosh
- Ghostly (re)visions: Embodying the Indian Caribbean churile by Christopher L. Ballengee
Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies is published twice a year, in June and December.
Read the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies
New African Journals Initiative
As well as the titles featured above, Pluto Journals is pleased to partner with the African Books Collective on the newly launched African Journals Initiative. The initiative is a three-year pilot programme which will support a growing community of Open Access social science and humanities journals based in African Universities. The initiative aims to:
- Enhance the profile and discoverability of African journals
- Increase journal usage and submissions
- Mobilise financial support from academic libraries and consortia
In our first year (2025) we are excited to work with Ibadan Sociology Journal, Journal of Humanities (Malawi), Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies (Tanzania), and Ethiopian Journal of Education.
For updates on the African Journals Initiative, you can sign up to their newsletter here. You can also sign up to the Pluto Journals newsletter here.
Pluto Journals is proud to be a Diamond Open Access publisher. That means all of our content is free to read, as soon as it is published, and that we charge no fees for any author contributions to our journals. All content in our journals is published under a CC BY 4.0 license. Discover the entire collection and archive for free here: https://www.jstor.org/publisher/plutojournals.
If you are a librarian and your institution would like to support the African Journals Initiative or the Pluto Journals Collection, please get in touch with Eve Kanram at [email protected].
