The Journal of Peasant Studies (subtitled: Critical Perspectives on Rural Politics and Development) is a peer-reviewed

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

 academic journal

Academic journal

An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...

 covering research into the social structures, institutions, actors, and processes of change in the rural areas of the developing world. It was established in 1973 with Terence J. Byres

Terence J. Byres

Terence J. Byres is a peasant studies scholar and a professor emeritus of Political Economy at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Byres was a founding editor of the Journal of Development Studies , the Journal of Peasant Studies and Journal of Agrarian Change .-...

, Charles Curwen, and Teodor Shanin

Teodor Shanin

Theodor Shanin was for many years a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. He is noted for his research on the informal economy, the Russian Revolution, African development, and perhaps most notably peasant studies.-Selected publications:...

 as founding editors.

Abstracting and indexing

The Journal of Peasant Studies is abstracted and indexed in Current Contents

Current Contents

Current Contents is a rapid alerting service database from the Institute for Scientific Information, now part of Thomson Reuters, that is published online and in several different printed subject sections.-History:...

/Social & Behavioural Sciences, Social Science Citation Index

Social Sciences Citation Index

Social Sciences Citation Index is an interdisciplinary citation index product of Thomson Reuters' Healthcare & Science division. It was developed by the Institute for Scientific Information from the Science Citation Index....

, International Political Science Abstracts

International Political Science Association

The International Political Science Association , founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949, is an international scholarly association. IPSA is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world...

, Sociological Abstracts

CSA (database company)

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, and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences

The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences is a bibliography for social science and interdisciplinary research. The database focuses on the social science disciplines of anthropology, economics, politics and sociology, and related interdisciplinary subjects, such as development...

. According to the Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by the Healthcare & Science division of Thomson Reuters. It has been integrated with the Web of Knowledge, by Thomson Reuters, and is accessed from the Web of Science to JCR Web. It provides information about academic journals in the sciences and...

, the journal has a 2009 impact factor

Impact factor

The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...

 of 0.429.

Past editors

Past editors of the journal are Terence J. Byres (1973–2000), Charles Curwen (1973–1984), Teodor Shanin (1973–1975), Henry Bernstein

Henry Bernstein (sociologist)

Henry Bernstein is a professor of at the University of London: School of Oriental and African Studies. He has worked for many years on social theory, peasant studies, the political economy of agrarian change, and the maize economy and land reform in South Africa...

 (1985–2000), and Tom Brass

Tom Brass

Tom Brass is an academic who has written widely on peasant studies. For many years he was at the University of Cambridge as an affiliated lecturer in their Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and at at Queen's College, Cambridge as their Director of Studies of the Social and Political...

 (1990–1998, 2000–2008). The current editor is Saturnino Borras Jr. (International Institute of Social Studies).