Research Synthesis Methods
- ISSN-L
- 1759-2879
- ISSN
- 1759-2887
- OpenAlex ID
- S205768342
- APC list price
- $3,020
In 2025, Research Synthesis Methods had an OJR of 2.71: its 2022–2024 papers received 2.7 times the world-average citations for comparable papers. Its Impact factor (2-year) was 7.98. Both figures are calculated from OpenAlex data.
Research Synthesis Methods is Q1 in OpenJournalRank’s 2025 Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty ranking (#4 of 43 eligible journals). These are OJR quartiles, calculated independently of SCImago, Scopus and JCR quartiles.
OpenAlex-listed APC: US$3,020 (source snapshot September 23, 2026). Check current charges with the journal.
The OpenJournalRank Indicator (OJR) is a free, publicly available metric of a journal’s field-normalized citation impact, computed from open OpenAlex citation data. It compares citations to a journal’s papers from the previous three years with the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and values can be compared across fields. It is computed with the NCI3 method. For 2025 it counts non-self citations to the articles, reviews and conference papers a journal published in 2022–2024. Ranks and quartiles order journals by OJR within the subfield, the field and all journals.
2.71
Q1#4 of 43
The Impact factor (2-year) counts citations made in 2025 to the articles, reviews and conference papers a journal published in the two previous years (2023–2024), divided by the number of those papers. Self-citations count; citations from repository-hosted works do not. It is not normalized by field. Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor™ uses the same basic formula but gives different numbers, and this site does not show it. Clarivate also counts citations to editorials, news and letters while dividing only by articles and reviews. OpenAlex sets document types automatically. The citing data differ: OpenAlex links references for most but not all works, and we leave out repository-hosted citing works. Publication years and snapshot dates also differ. Because of these differences, our value can be higher or lower than the JIF for a given journal, so don’t compare the two directly.
7.98
+25.1% change from 2024
from 6.38 in 2024
Why is it different?
- Journals usually quote Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor™ (JIF).
- Same idea: citations this year to papers from the past two years, divided by those papers.
- The JIF also counts citations to editorials, news and letters but divides only by research papers. We count citations to research papers only.
- Different citation data (OpenAlex, not Web of Science) and timing.
So the two numbers can differ, in either direction, and the size of the difference has not been established. Compare ours with other journals here, not with the JIF.
Full explanation →OJR compares non-self citations to classified citable papers with the world-average expectation for their subfields, publication years and types.
Computed by OpenJournalRank from the OpenAlex snapshot of September 23, 2026; 472,521,793 citations counted across this release.
Looking for Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor™? Check the Master Journal List
OJR rank in each category · 2025
The badge is the quartile; Q1 is the top quarter of ranked journals. Each track runs from the bottom of the category (left) to the top (right), shaded by quartile. The bold marker is this journal and the thin tick the category median. The outlined box is the likely rank range: the 95% interval from re-drawing the journal’s papers 1,000 times. “Spans Q1–Q2” means that range crosses a quartile boundary.
Ranking categories are derived from OpenAlex paper classifications and may differ from a journal’s stated scope.
At a glance
Quartile history in every category and the key figures for 2025, drawn as small charts.
Quartile by year
Each cell is the journal’s quartile among ranked journals in that category and year, by OJR. Q1 is the top quarter. Years run 2000–2025; tap or hover a cell for the exact rank.
2025Subfield · Statistics, Probability and UncertaintyQ1Rank 4 of 43Top 10%
Each track runs from the bottom of the category (left) to the top (right), shaded by quartile. The bold marker is this journal, the outlined box its likely rank range and the thin tick the category median.
Top 10%in Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Citations made in 2025 to papers from 2023–2024, divided by the number of those papers, next to the same value a year earlier.
7.98+25.1%
Everything the journal published in 2025, split into articles, reviews and other items such as editorials. The line shows the last ten years.
93
Citations made in 2025 to papers from 2022–2024, divided by the number of those papers. Includes self-citations. The line shows the last ten years.
9.3
The median number of 2025 citations per paper from 2022–2024, next to the mean (cites per document). A mean far above the median means a few papers draw most of the citations.
3.0
Share of the journal’s 2022–2024 papers that are among the most cited 10% for their subfield, year and type. The marker at 10% is the world baseline.
25.3%
Share of 2025 citations to the journal’s 2022–2024 papers that come from the journal itself. The tick on the ring marks the field median.
5.4%
Share of documents published in 2025 that are free to read, across all document types.
100%
Share of documents published in 2025 with authors in two or more countries.
52%
All-time OpenAlex values at the snapshot date, not limited to the ranking window. The h-index is the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each; the i10-index counts papers with at least 10 citations.
110h-index
Over the years
Impact factor (2-year)
Show the data as a table
| Year | Impact factor (2-year) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 7.98 |
| 2024 | 6.38 |
| 2023 | 5.82 |
| 2022 | 9.56 |
| 2021 | 10.49 |
| 2020 | 6.22 |
| 2019 | 6.30 |
| 2018 | 4.68 |
| 2017 | 3.13 |
| 2016 | 3.20 |
| 2015 | 3.68 |
| 2014 | 4.85 |
| 2013 | 4.18 |
| 2012 | 3.61 |
| 2011 | 1.79 |
| 2010 | — |
OJR
Show the data as a table
| Year | OJR | Field median |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.71 | 0.80 |
| 2024 | 0.73 | 0.80 |
| 2023 | 1.40 | 0.79 |
| 2022 | 1.83 | 0.82 |
| 2021 | 2.84 | 0.93 |
| 2020 | 2.18 | 0.90 |
| 2019 | 1.96 | 0.91 |
| 2018 | 1.76 | 0.84 |
| 2017 | 1.56 | 0.85 |
| 2016 | 1.65 | 0.96 |
| 2015 | 2.22 | 0.98 |
| 2014 | 1.97 | 0.98 |
| 2013 | 2.75 | 1.03 |
| 2012 | 2.40 | 1.10 |
| 2011 | 1.64 | 1.17 |
| 2010 | — | 1.07 |
Trajectory against its field, 2022 → 2025
- OJR 2022 → 2025
- 1.83 → 2.71 +48%
- Median change in field
- -3%78 journals
- Relative to field
- +52%-27% to +216%
- Citable papers
- +6%189 → 200; field +7%
Show the data as a table
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| OJR 2022 → 2025 | 1.83 → 2.71 |
| Median change in field | -3% |
| Relative to field | +52% |
| Lower end of the bar | -27% |
| Upper end of the bar | +216% |
| Rising zone starts at | +10% |
| Falling zone starts at | -9.1% |
| Citable papers | 189 → 200 (+6%) |
Documents by type
Show the data as a table
| Year | Articles | Reviews | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64 | 27 | 2 |
| 2024 | 54 | 10 | 13 |
| 2023 | 58 | 14 | 12 |
| 2022 | 52 | 12 | 14 |
| 2021 | 54 | 11 | 13 |
| 2020 | 68 | 9 | 12 |
| 2019 | 39 | 8 | 8 |
| 2018 | 39 | 8 | 9 |
| 2017 | 39 | 11 | 11 |
| 2016 | 27 | 4 | 17 |
| 2015 | 39 | 5 | 7 |
| 2014 | 18 | 2 | 4 |
| 2013 | 27 | 12 | 6 |
| 2012 | 28 | 5 | 5 |
| 2011 | 19 | 8 | 4 |
| 2010 | 23 | 1 | 6 |
Citations to the previous three years
Show the data as a table
| Year | From other sources | Self-citations |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,768 | 101 |
| 2024 | 1,183 | 60 |
| 2023 | 2,005 | 74 |
| 2022 | 2,103 | 49 |
| 2021 | 1,732 | 54 |
| 2020 | 1,116 | 62 |
| 2019 | 694 | 50 |
| 2018 | 579 | 66 |
| 2017 | 338 | 34 |
| 2016 | 409 | 25 |
| 2015 | 474 | 44 |
| 2014 | 418 | 22 |
| 2013 | 397 | 48 |
| 2012 | 163 | 21 |
| 2011 | 38 | 5 |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 |
Share in the top 10% of their field
Show the data as a table
| Year | Top 10% share |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 25.3% |
| 2024 | 20.7% |
| 2023 | 26.6% |
| 2022 | 30.2% |
| 2021 | 33.5% |
| 2020 | 27.7% |
| 2019 | 21.2% |
| 2018 | 21.8% |
| 2017 | 20.6% |
| 2016 | 26.7% |
| 2015 | 26.1% |
| 2014 | 34.1% |
| 2013 | 34.2% |
| 2012 | 27.0% |
| 2011 | 24.2% |
| 2010 | — |
Collaboration and open access
Show the data as a table
| Year | International collaboration | Open access |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 51.6% | 100.0% |
| 2024 | 39.0% | 84.4% |
| 2023 | 31.0% | 83.3% |
| 2022 | 41.0% | 57.7% |
| 2021 | 46.2% | 69.2% |
| 2020 | 36.0% | 65.2% |
| 2019 | 29.1% | 60.0% |
| 2018 | 30.4% | 53.6% |
| 2017 | 27.9% | 49.2% |
| 2016 | 31.3% | 62.5% |
| 2015 | 21.6% | 35.3% |
| 2014 | 25.0% | 25.0% |
| 2013 | 31.1% | 17.8% |
| 2012 | 21.1% | 15.8% |
| 2011 | 19.4% | 3.2% |
| 2010 | 33.3% | 10.0% |
In context
How Research Synthesis Methods compares with the journals of its comparison group: Decision Sciences. Windows are 2022–2024 (retractions 2015–2024).
Each group is the journal’s field, or its domain when the field has too few eligible journals. On each value track the shaded band is the middle half of the group and the tick its median. The percentile under it is a mid-rank position out of 100: journals with a lower value count fully and tied journals count half, so ties share a mid-rank. Colour marks only retractions, cost and an unusual self-citation share; other differences carry no quality judgement.
- This journal
- Median
- Middle half of field
Integrity and cost
Retracted papers per 1,000
Papers marked retracted per 1,000 citable papers at the OpenAlex snapshot date; this does not show the reasons for retraction or assess a journal’s practices.
The comparison is the pooled rate across 100 field journals (all their retracted papers divided by all their papers), so there is no percentile.
0 retracted of 560 papers; field rate pooled across 100 journals
Listed APC (USD)
The article processing charge OpenAlex lists for the source; zero means a listed charge of $0.
Middle half of the field: $2,550–$3,550; median $3,190; n = 77 field journals.
Field percentile: 37/100 among 77 eligible journals
37/100Journal self-citation share
Share of citations to window papers that come from the same journal; a high share can reflect a narrow specialty and is not evidence of misconduct.
Middle half of the field: 1.8%–10.1%; median 5.8%; n = 131 field journals.
Field percentile: 47/100 among 131 eligible journals
47/100Openness and reach
Open access share
Share of window papers marked open access among papers with known OA status.
Middle half of the field: 24.0%–100.0%; median 55.5%; n = 184 field journals.
Field percentile: 64/100 among 184 eligible journals
64/100International collaboration share
Share of window papers with at least two distinct affiliation countries among papers with a known country.
Middle half of the field: 19.8%–35.6%; median 26.3%; n = 170 field journals.
Field percentile: 89/100 among 170 eligible journals
89/100Output growth
Change in citable paper counts between two adjacent three-year windows; it does not show changes in research quality or explain why output changed.
Middle half of the field: -18.3%–+26.7%; median +1.8%; n = 170 field journals.
Field percentile: 54/100 among 170 eligible journals
54/100Document mix
Review share
Reviews as a share of all citable window papers.
Middle half of the field: 0.0%–1.3%; median 0.0%; n = 184 field journals.
Field percentile: 99/100 among 184 eligible journals
99/100Articles-only OJR
OJR for classified window articles only, using the same baseline cells as the overall score.
Middle half of the field: 0.43–1.37; median 0.81; n = 180 field journals.
Field percentile: 98/100 among 180 eligible journals
98/100Citation distribution
Uncited share
Share of window papers receiving no non-self citations in the indicator year.
Middle half of the field: 25.5%–57.1%; median 38.5%; n = 184 field journals.
Field percentile: 11/100 among 184 eligible journals
11/100Citation concentration
Share of non-self citations received by the journal’s most-cited 10% of window papers.
Middle half of the field: 42.5%–56.7%; median 49.1%; n = 184 field journals.
Field percentile: 84/100 among 184 eligible journals
84/100Similar journals
Journals ranked nearest to this one in Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty by OJR, 2025.
- #1Research Integrity and Peer ReviewQ1OJR 3.74
- #2Reliability Engineering & System SafetyQ1OJR 3.25
- #3Journal of the Association for Information Science and TechnologyQ1OJR 2.81
- #4Research Synthesis Methods (This journal)Q1OJR 2.71
- #5Quantitative Science StudiesQ1OJR 2.44
- #6Structural SafetyQ1OJR 2.25
- #7PublicationsQ1OJR 1.97
- #8Journal of Clinical EpidemiologyQ1OJR 1.62
- #9ScientometricsQ1OJR 1.57
- #10Journal of InformetricsQ1OJR 1.52
- #11Frontiers in Research Metrics and AnalyticsQ1OJR 1.50
Detailed breakdown
The figures behind the charts, written out in full.
The two headline numbers
OJR is OpenJournalRank’s index, computed with the NCI3 method. It divides the non-self citations that papers published in 2022–2024 received in 2025 by the citations expected for papers of the same subfield, publication year and type worldwide. For 2022–2024, papers in this journal received 2.7 times the citations expected worldwide for comparable papers.
The Impact factor (2-year) is simpler: citations made in 2025 to the papers published in 2023 and 2024, divided by the number of those papers. For this journal it was 7.98, up from 6.38 in 2024 (+25.1%). It counts self-citations and is not adjusted for field, so a value of 5 means something different in economics and in molecular biology.
This value is computed from OpenAlex and is not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor™. The two use different citation sources and different rules for which items count, so the numbers will not match. Across all core journals, 84.3% of articles and reviews published in 2025 have at least one matched reference in OpenAlex (87.1% in 2024). This is a corpus-wide share: it does not measure how complete any one journal’s reference lists are, and no value on this page is adjusted for it.
Trajectory
In line with its field
OJR changed from 1.83 in 2022 to 2.71 in 2025 (+48%). Across 78 Decision Sciences journals, the median change was -3%, so relative to its field this journal changed +52% (between -27% and +216% at two standard errors).
It published 189 citable papers in 2019–2021 and 200 in 2022–2024 (+6%). Across all journals, the number of Decision Sciences papers changed +7% over the same periods. This counts articles, reviews and conference papers with a subfield in this field, including core and non-core journals.
A rising label needs a relative increase of at least 10%; a falling label needs a relative decrease of at least 9.1% (rounded). Both require at least 2 standard errors. Here the difference is 1.2 standard errors. This journal is in line with its field because the difference is under 2 standard errors.
In context, in full
Descriptive comparisons with eligible journals ranked in 2025.
| Measure | This journal | Field or domain | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation shareShare of citations to window papers that come from the same journal; a high share can reflect a narrow specialty and is not evidence of misconduct. | 5.4%101 self-citations of 1,869 citations | Field median: 5.8%Decision Sciences | percentile 47/100 among 131 eligible Decision Sciences journals47/100 |
| Retracted papers per 1,000Papers marked retracted per 1,000 citable papers at the OpenAlex snapshot date; this does not show the reasons for retraction or assess a journal’s practices. | No retracted papers among 560 (field: 18.472 per 1,000) | Field pooled rate: 18.472 per 1,000Decision Sciences | No percentile comparison |
| Output growthChange in citable paper counts between two adjacent three-year windows; it does not show changes in research quality or explain why output changed. | +5.8%200 papers in the later window; 189 in the earlier window | Field median: +1.8%Decision Sciences | percentile 54/100 among 170 eligible Decision Sciences journals54/100 |
| Open access shareShare of window papers marked open access among papers with known OA status. | 81.5%163 of 200 papers with known metadata | Field median: 55.5%Decision Sciences | percentile 64/100 among 184 eligible Decision Sciences journals64/100 |
| Listed APC (USD)The article processing charge OpenAlex lists for the source; zero means a listed charge of $0. | $3,020 | Field median: $3,190Decision Sciences | percentile 37/100 among 77 eligible Decision Sciences journals37/100 |
| International collaboration shareShare of window papers with at least two distinct affiliation countries among papers with a known country. | 44.2%88 of 199 papers with known metadata | Field median: 26.3%Decision Sciences | percentile 89/100 among 170 eligible Decision Sciences journals89/100 |
| Review shareReviews as a share of all citable window papers. | 18.0%36 reviews among 200 window papers | Field median: 0.0%Decision Sciences | percentile 99/100 among 184 eligible Decision Sciences journals99/100 |
| Articles-only OJRNormalized citation impact of classified window articles, using the same baseline cells as the overall OJR. | 3.52164 classified articles; all papers: 2.71 | Field median: 0.81Decision Sciences | percentile 98/100 among 180 eligible Decision Sciences journals98/100 |
| Uncited shareShare of window papers receiving no non-self citations in the indicator year. | 17.0%34 uncited among 200 window papers | Field median: 38.5%Decision Sciences | percentile 11/100 among 184 eligible Decision Sciences journals11/100 |
| Citation concentrationShare of non-self citations received by the journal’s most-cited 10% of window papers. | 64.7%1,144 of 1,768 non-self citations; top 20 of 200 papers | Field median: 49.1%Decision Sciences | percentile 84/100 among 184 eligible Decision Sciences journals84/100 |
Ties share a mid-rank percentile. A higher value carries no quality judgement. How field comparisons work
How this score was computed
Citations made in 2025 to articles, reviews and conference papers published in 2022–2024. Actual and Expected include only papers with a subfield.
- Actual (non-self citations)
- 1,768
- Expected (world-average expectation)
- 653.210043
- OJR standard error
- 0.4577
- Most-cited paper's share of citations
- 9.6%
- Citable papers in 2022–2024
- 200
- Classification coverage
- 100.0%
- Share of citable papers with a subfield
- Citations without a known source
- 3.8%
- Share of Actual from citing works without a known source
- Reference coverage in 2025
- 84.3%
- Corpus-wide share of core-journal articles and reviews with at least one matched reference
OJR = Actual ÷ Expected
1,768 ÷ 653.210043 ≈ 2.71
Displayed values are rounded; OJR uses the unrounded expectation.
Impact factor (2-year), 2025 = 1,085 ÷ 136 = 7.98
Publication window 2023–2024; includes journal self-citations.
What it publishes
In 2022–2024, the journal published 200 citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers).
Among papers with a subfield: 59% in Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty, 14% in Statistics and Probability, 3% in Economics and Econometrics, 3% in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, and 2% in Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health.
Subjects follow OpenAlex’s primary-subfield classification, which may differ from a journal’s stated scope.
Among papers with a known author affiliation country: United States (32%), United Kingdom (30%), Germany (20%), Australia (16%), and Canada (13%). Author affiliations span 40 countries in this window. A paper counts toward each country it lists, so shares can total more than 100%.
Open-access status among papers with a known status: hybrid (73%), closed (19%), bronze (6%), and green (3%).