Journal rankings · indicator year 2004
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2004
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2004
222 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 222 ranked journals in 2004. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.12 against 1.00, up 0.03 on 2003. A journal needs OJR 2.77 to reach Q1. The top three are European Union Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and European Journal of International Relations.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2004. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.
Journals whose main subfield sits in this category and that published at least 30 citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) in 2001–2003, the window the 2004 score is computed on.
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.
The middle OJR among ranked journals in this category: half score higher, half lower. 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type.
The dot is this category, the solid tick is the median of all ranked journals and the dashed line is the world average.
Share of ranked journals in this category that are fully open access, so every paper is free to read. Hybrid journals, which sell subscriptions and open single papers for a fee, are not counted.
Median list price of the article processing charge, in US dollars, among ranked journals in this category that list a price above zero. Journals with a listed APC of $0 and journals with no known price are left out of this median. The At a glance table below gives a second median that includes the $0 prices.
Subfields of Social Sciences (22)
222 ranked journals
Filters
Rank is the position by OJR within the list on screen; 1 is the highest. | OJR is field-normalized 3-year citation impact: 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so values compare across fields. The badge is the journal’s quartile in this list. | Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is not field-normalized, so compare it only between journals of the same field. ▲ or ▼ is the change from 2003. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2001–2003, the window the 2004 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2001–2003 papers that are free to read in any open-access form. The green OA tag next to a title marks a fully open-access journal. | List price of the article processing charge in US dollars. “$0 listed” means the listed price is zero; a dash means no price is listed. | The line is the journal’s OJR from 2000 to 2004. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 15.46Q1 | 2.82 0.35 down from 2003 | 64 | 19% | $3,650 | ||
2Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 15.28Q1 | 5.64 2.64 up from 2003 | 139 | 5% | $3,900 | ||
3European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.81Q1 | 2.97 1.18 up from 2003 | 50 | 16% | $3,900 | ||
4Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.10Q1 | 4.07 2.15 up from 2003 | 73 | 0% | $3,650 | ||
5American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 12.85Q1 | 3.41 0.64 down from 2003 | 233 | 7% | $4,100 | ||
6British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 11.99Q1 | 3.72 0.43 down from 2003 | 99 | 4% | $3,550 | ||
7Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 11.10Q1 | 4.15 1.01 up from 2003 | 72 | 22% | $4,030 | ||
8Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 10.75Q1 | 2.89 0.16 up from 2003 | 157 | 15% | — | ||
9JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 10.29Q1 | 2.56 0.41 up from 2003 | 182 | 41% | $4,170 | ||
10Foreign AffairsCouncil on Foreign Relations · United States | 9.86Q1 | 3.57 0.37 up from 2003 | 1,266 | 0% | — | ||
11International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 9.64Q1 | 3.32 0.65 down from 2003 | 90 | 6% | — | ||
12Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 9.30Q1 | 1.94 0.16 up from 2003 | 49 | 0% | $2,990 | ||
13International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 9.19Q1 | 2.93 1.01 up from 2003 | 140 | 2% | $4,936 | ||
14Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 9.03Q1 | 2.12 1.15 down from 2003 | 110 | 12% | $3,650 | ||
15Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 8.95Q1 | 2.87 0.41 down from 2003 | 239 | 3% | — | ||
16Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.62Q1 | 2.37 1.70 up from 2003 | 206 | 2% | $2,840 | ||
17Studies in Comparative International DevelopmentSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 8.57Q1 | 2.36 0.54 down from 2003 | 60 | 10% | $3,390 | ||
18West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 8.01Q1 | 2.11 0.14 down from 2003 | 138 | 9% | — | ||
19Politics Philosophy & EconomicsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.62Q1 | 2.23 0.73 up from 2003 | 30 | 10% | $3,650 | ||
20Journal of Government InformationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 6.23Q1 | 1.07 1.86 down from 2003 | 175 | 5% | — | ||
21GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom | 5.98Q1 | 2.68 0.30 down from 2003 | 70 | 6% | $3,730 | ||
22Scandinavian Political StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 5.79Q1 | 1.71 0.68 up from 2003 | 51 | 4% | $2,950 | ||
23The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.77Q1 | 1.59 0.57 up from 2003 | 78 | 5% | $3,650 | ||
24European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 5.71Q1 | 1.94 0.75 up from 2003 | 193 | 11% | $3,550 | ||
25International Political Science ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.49Q1 | 1.43 0.39 up from 2003 | 75 | 9% | $3,650 | ||
26Ethics & International AffairsCambridge University Press · United States | 5.48Q1 | 2.08 1.36 up from 2003 | 125 | 3% | $3,550 | ||
27Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.48Q1 | 1.36 0.08 up from 2003 | 142 | 8% | $3,650 | ||
28The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 5.47Q1 | 1.16no change | 232 | 4% | — | ||
29Global Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 0.95 0.36 up from 2003 | 54 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
30Europe Asia StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 5.04Q1 | 1.46 0.27 up from 2003 | 175 | 1% | — | ||
31Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.97Q1 | 1.88 0.18 up from 2003 | 158 | 7% | — | ||
32Journal of Social PolicyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.80Q1 | 2.01 0.80 up from 2003 | 102 | 8% | $3,550 | ||
33Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 4.67Q1 | 1.23 0.21 up from 2003 | 134 | 8% | $3,969 | ||
34European Law JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 4.37Q1 | 1.15 0.04 down from 2003 | 73 | 56% | $3,570 | ||
35World Trade ReviewCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 1.33 2.08 down from 2003 | 55 | 12% | $3,550 | ||
36Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 4.12Q1 | 1.81 0.63 up from 2003 | 96 | 18% | $3,550 | ||
37Global Governance A Review of Multilateralism and International OrganizationsLynne Rienner Publishers · Netherlands | 3.99Q1 | 1.29 0.46 down from 2003 | 100 | 6% | — | ||
38Parliamentary AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.85Q1 | 0.59 0.05 down from 2003 | 233 | 4% | $4,468 | ||
39International Relations of the Asia-PacificOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.83Q1 | 1.93 0.49 up from 2003 | 49 | 14% | $3,571 | ||
40Post-Soviet Geography and EconomicsTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.83Q1 | 1.38 0.06 up from 2003 | 35 | — | — | ||
41Policy & PoliticsPolicy Press · United Kingdom | 3.51Q1 | 1.41 0.69 down from 2003 | 96 | 20% | — | ||
42American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 3.45Q1 | 1.35 0.62 up from 2003 | 680 | 20% | $3,550 | ||
43Journal of Elections Public Opinion and PartiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.43Q1 | 1.19 0.72 up from 2003 | 46 | 0% | — | ||
44Policy StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.28Q1 | 1.62 0.73 up from 2003 | 46 | 5% | — | ||
45Environment and Planning C Government and PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.21Q1 | 1.51 0.21 up from 2003 | 173 | 24% | — | ||
46The China QuarterlyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.19Q1 | 0.99 0.28 up from 2003 | 142 | 2% | $3,550 | ||
47Latin American Politics and SocietyCambridge University Press · United States | 3.17Q1 | 0.94 0.13 down from 2003 | 252 | 5% | $3,550 | ||
48Comparative Studies in Society and HistoryCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.14Q1 | 0.73 0.03 down from 2003 | 126 | 14% | $3,550 | ||
49Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.10Q1 | 1.14 0.18 down from 2003 | 156 | 4% | $2,290 | ||
50Quality in Higher EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.09Q1 | 1.00 0.11 down from 2003 | 69 | 0% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science716
- Education363
- Political Science and International Relations222
- Public Administration46
- Gender Studies36
- Communication35
- Safety Research33
- Health32
- Library and Information Sciences32
- Linguistics and Language32
- Anthropology30
- Law26
- Demography24
- Transportation24
- Urban Studies19
- Geography, Planning and Development15
- Cultural Studies8
- Development2
- Human Factors and Ergonomics2
- General Social Sciences1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2004. Corpus-wide, 69.4% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
64 additional Political Science and International Relations journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2001–2003, at least 80% of them with a subfield, and a positive world-average expectation. Ranks are within the whole category; filters hide rows without re-ranking. OJR excludes self-citations.
At a glance
Indicator year: 2004. Publication window: 2001–2003. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 222
- Window papers (baseline)
- 113,825 +23.0% from indicator year 2001
- Median OJR
- 1.12 +13.1% from indicator year 2001
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2001–2003 in all journals of the world-average baseline, including non-core journals, counted by each paper’s own subfield. They are not the papers of the ranked journals alone.
| Measure | Year series | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranked journals | 185 | 187 | 198 | 211 | 222 | 236 | 243 | 248 | 255 | 260 | 270 | 279 | 287 | 287 | 294 | 301 | 308 | 318 | 321 | 326 | 332 | 333 | 339 | 334 | 334 | 322 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 87,090 | 92,551 | 99,427 | 106,761 | 113,825 | 122,173 | 130,947 | 139,764 | 148,869 | 159,463 | 170,900 | 180,910 | 191,534 | 201,200 | 210,369 | 223,416 | 235,982 | 245,820 | 247,938 | 251,957 | 262,579 | 278,323 | 289,523 | 291,064 | 289,519 | 294,162 | |
| Median OJR | 0.81 | 0.99 | 0.90 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.31 | 1.27 | 1.42 | 1.603 | 1.68 | 1.77 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 1.78 | 1.69 | 1.83 | 1.92 | 1.87 | 1.723 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.71 | 1.602 | 1.63 | 1.52 | 1.718 |
How to read these rankings
- OJR, the OpenJournalRank Indicator
- A field-normalized 3-year citation impact, computed from OpenAlex with the NCI3 method. It divides the citations a journal’s papers received by the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and 2.00 means twice as many citations as expected. Because it is normalized, it can be compared across fields. Read the methodology
- Quartiles
- Q1 to Q4 split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. A journal’s quartile depends on the list: the same journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 among all journals.
- Impact factor (2-year)
- Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is easy to compare with familiar impact factors but is not field-normalized, so compare it only within a field. It is not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. Why it differs from the Journal Impact Factor
- Rank ranges
- Each rank in the latest year carries a likely range from 1,000 resamples of the journal’s papers. Where two journals’ ranges overlap, the data cannot tell them apart, so treat neighbouring ranks as ties.