Journal rankings · indicator year 2015
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2015
Communication journal rankings 2015
65 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Communication has 65 ranked journals in 2015. The median OJR rose 0.25 on 2014 to 1.74, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.92. The top three are Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, and Journal of Knowledge Management.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2015. 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 2012–2014, the window the 2015 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)
65 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 2014. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2012–2014, the window the 2015 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2012–2014 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 2006 to 2015. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of CommunicationOxford University Press · United States | 8.81Q1 | 5.15 0.82 down from 2014 | 215 | 17% | $4,235 | ||
2Communication TheoryWiley · United States | 8.03Q1 | 4.78 0.27 up from 2014 | 74 | 11% | $4,235 | ||
3Journal of Knowledge ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 6.04Q1 | 4.15 0.47 down from 2014 | 181 | 18% | — | ||
4Journal of Studies in International EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.51Q1 | 3.50 1.72 up from 2014 | 77 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
5The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.29Q1 | 3.78 1.10 up from 2014 | 74 | 29% | $3,900 | ||
6Political CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 4.92Q1 | 2.81 0.96 up from 2014 | 90 | 10% | — | ||
7Digital JournalismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.82Q1 | 3.37 0.82 down from 2014 | 102 | 20% | — | ||
8Journal of Information Technology & PoliticsRoutledge · United States | 3.99Q1 | 2.82 0.31 up from 2014 | 89 | 5% | — | ||
9Corporate Communications An International JournalEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 3.91Q1 | 3.20 1.09 up from 2014 | 88 | 17% | — | ||
10Journal of Public Relations ResearchTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.78Q1 | 2.85 0.85 up from 2014 | 70 | 21% | — | ||
11Discourse & CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.47Q1 | 1.07 0.15 down from 2014 | 62 | 15% | $3,650 | ||
12Journalism StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 3.36Q1 | 1.75 0.51 down from 2014 | 217 | 25% | — | ||
13Journalism PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.32Q1 | 2.40 0.15 down from 2014 | 189 | 25% | — | ||
14Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 3.30Q1 | 1.50 0.28 up from 2014 | 189 | 6% | $3,900 | ||
15JournalismSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.28Q1 | 1.98 0.24 down from 2014 | 229 | 23% | $3,900 | ||
16Journal of Global Mobility The Home of Expatriate Management ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 3.06Q1 | 3.06 0.31 up from 2014 | 31 | 4% | — | ||
17European Journal of CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.92Q1 | 1.51 0.39 down from 2014 | 218 | 13% | $3,650 | ||
18Public Relations ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 2.86Q2 | 1.85 0.27 down from 2014 | 354 | 11% | $4,310 | ||
19International Communication GazetteSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.76Q2 | 1.55 0.20 down from 2014 | 127 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
20Journal of International and Intercultural CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.44Q2 | 1.37 0.27 up from 2014 | 53 | 26% | — | ||
21International Journal of Cross Cultural ManagementSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.37Q2 | 1.71 0.41 up from 2014 | 52 | 14% | $3,650 | ||
22Annals of the International Communication AssociationTaylor & Francis | 2.21Q2 | 1.75 0.03 down from 2014 | 36 | 15% | $3,368 | ||
23Journal of Communication ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.15Q2 | 1.69 0.22 up from 2014 | 72 | 8% | — | ||
24Cross Cultural Management An International JournalEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.12Q2 | 1.05 0.42 down from 2014 | 91 | 6% | — | ||
25Media War & ConflictSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.09Q2 | 1.31 0.52 up from 2014 | 61 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
26Journal of Deliberative DemocracyOAUnited Kingdom | 2.08Q2 | 0.94 0.60 down from 2014 | 91 | 100% | — | ||
27CommunicationsDe Gruyter Mouton · Germany | 2.07Q2 | 1.24 0.45 up from 2014 | 65 | 30% | $2,712 | ||
28International Journal of Knowledge ManagementOAIGI Global · United States | 2.07Q2 | 1.76 0.51 up from 2014 | 55 | 0% | — | ||
29International Journal of Strategic CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.99Q2 | 1.57 0.13 down from 2014 | 52 | 11% | — | ||
30Journal of Political MarketingTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.87Q2 | 1.02 0.13 up from 2014 | 67 | 16% | — | ||
31Electronic Journal of Knowledge ManagementOAAcademic Conferences and Publishing International · United Kingdom | 1.81Q2 | 1.32 0.52 up from 2014 | 34 | 100% | — | ||
32Journal of Intercultural Communication ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.75Q2 | 1.33 0.44 up from 2014 | 58 | 15% | — | ||
33Public Relations InquirySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.74Q2 | 0.86 1.16 down from 2014 | 55 | 10% | $3,650 | ||
34Global Media and CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.70Q3 | 0.85 0.53 up from 2014 | 47 | 9% | $3,650 | ||
35Journal of International StudentsOAEditors of the journals · United States | 1.52Q3 | 1.12 0.34 up from 2014 | 85 | 100% | — | ||
36Knowledge Management Research & PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.49Q3 | 1.04 0.01 up from 2014 | 171 | 11% | — | ||
37Ecquid Novi African Journalism StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.47Q3 | 0.65 0.05 up from 2014 | 114 | — | — | ||
38Journal of Teaching in International BusinessTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.40Q3 | 0.86 0.21 up from 2014 | 57 | 23% | — | ||
39Critical Studies in Television The International Journal of Television StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.36Q3 | 0.70 0.40 up from 2014 | 69 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
40Journal of International CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.34Q3 | 0.38 0.90 down from 2014 | 54 | 0% | — | ||
41Nordicom review/NORDICOM reviewOADe Gruyter Open · Sweden | 1.31Q3 | 0.83 0.21 up from 2014 | 110 | 100% | — | ||
42Asian Journal of CommunicationRoutledge · United Kingdom | 1.22Q3 | 0.66 0.07 down from 2014 | 133 | 17% | — | ||
43Media International AustraliaPublisher not listed | 1.21Q3 | 0.51 0.38 down from 2014 | 199 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
44El Profesional de la InformacionOAEdiciones Profesionales de la Informacion SL · Spain | 0.97Q3 | 0.79 0.09 down from 2014 | 227 | 100% | — | ||
45International Journal of E-PoliticsIGI Global · United States | 0.97Q3 | 0.64 0.22 up from 2014 | 55 | 5% | — | ||
46Studies in Communication and MediaOANomos · Germany | 0.97Q3 | 0.42 0.23 up from 2014 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
47Journal of Mass Media EthicsTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.95Q3 | 0.74 0.28 up from 2014 | 96 | — | — | ||
48Studies in Communication SciencesOAElsevier BV · Switzerland | 0.88Q3 | 0.56 0.34 up from 2014 | 69 | 16% | — | ||
49Electronic NewsSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.73Q3 | 0.45 0.09 down from 2014 | 51 | 0% | $3,650 | ||
50Newspaper Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.68Q4 | 0.30 0.05 down from 2014 | 100 | 6% | $3,200 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Communication highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,184
- Education658
- Political Science and International Relations301
- Communication65
- Gender Studies59
- Safety Research53
- Public Administration51
- Health50
- Transportation45
- Library and Information Sciences44
- Linguistics and Language43
- Law42
- Demography40
- Urban Studies40
- Anthropology37
- Geography, Planning and Development25
- Cultural Studies10
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2015. Corpus-wide, 78.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
20 additional Communication journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2012–2014, 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: 2015. Publication window: 2012–2014. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 65
- Window papers (baseline)
- 31,115 +23.7% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 1.74 +4.3% from indicator year 2012
- Rising journals (2025)
- 3
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2012–2014 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 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 36 | 35 | 35 | 38 | 38 | 43 | 48 | 52 | 52 | 54 | 57 | 66 | 65 | 68 | 71 | 74 | 74 | 79 | 75 | 77 | 73 | 72 | 71 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 6,625 | 7,353 | 8,060 | 9,040 | 9,893 | 11,132 | 12,598 | 14,308 | 16,130 | 18,165 | 20,333 | 22,525 | 25,150 | 27,541 | 29,419 | 31,115 | 32,404 | 33,284 | 33,565 | 34,506 | 36,327 | 39,973 | 43,466 | 44,324 | 43,348 | 42,854 | |
| Median OJR | 0.692 | 0.54 | 0.691 | 0.67 | 0.94 | 1.31 | 1.570 | 1.66 | 1.47 | 1.86 | 1.80 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.72 | 1.49 | 1.74 | 1.56 | 1.59 | 1.54 | 1.333 | 1.42 | 1.326 | 1.48 | 1.62 | 1.68 | 1.565 |
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.