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
Law journal rankings 2015
42 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Law has 42 ranked journals in 2015. The median OJR rose 0.13 on 2014 to 0.87, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.46. The top three are Law & Society Review, Journal of Consumer Policy, and Modern Law Review.
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)
42 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Law & Society ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 5.55Q1 | 1.46 0.47 down from 2014 | 98 | 10% | $3,550 | ||
2Journal of Consumer PolicySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.08Q1 | 1.55 0.28 up from 2014 | 87 | 23% | $3,390 | ||
3Modern Law ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.45Q1 | 0.77 0.12 up from 2014 | 185 | 25% | $3,400 | ||
4Journal of Political EcologyOAUniversity of Arizona · United States | 2.11Q1 | 2.49 1.56 up from 2014 | 77 | 100% | — | ||
5Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly CommunicationOAPacific University Library · United States | 2.03Q1 | 1.35 0.01 up from 2014 | 71 | 100% | — | ||
6Indiana Journal of Global Legal StudiesIndiana University Press · United States | 2.02Q1 | 0.63 0.04 up from 2014 | 101 | 3% | — | ||
7International Journal of the Legal ProfessionTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.91Q1 | 0.55 0.21 down from 2014 | 52 | 18% | — | ||
8Review of European Comparative & International Environmental LawWiley · United Kingdom | 1.74Q1 | 0.84 0.43 up from 2014 | 74 | 30% | $3,750 | ||
9Journal of Social Welfare and Family LawTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.50Q1 | 1.00 0.12 up from 2014 | 101 | 18% | — | ||
10Law and CritiqueSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.46Q1 | 0.76 0.06 up from 2014 | 52 | 27% | $3,090 | ||
11Journal of Law and SocietyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.46Q1 | 0.56no change | 141 | 33% | $3,170 | ||
12International Journal of Law in ContextCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.26Q2 | 0.76 0.33 up from 2014 | 110 | 46% | $3,550 | ||
13The Law TeacherTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.24Q2 | 0.26 0.01 up from 2014 | 115 | 13% | — | ||
14QUT Law ReviewOAQueensland University of Technology · Australia | 1.24Q2 | 0.29 0.16 up from 2014 | 53 | 100% | — | ||
15International Journal of Discrimination and the LawSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.13Q2 | 0.32 0.02 down from 2014 | 49 | 33% | $3,650 | ||
16Feminist Legal StudiesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.09Q2 | 0.54 0.11 up from 2014 | 77 | 25% | $2,190 | ||
17Legal StudiesCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.08Q2 | 0.55 0.03 down from 2014 | 94 | 32% | $3,550 | ||
18Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et SociétéOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.02Q2 | 0.49 0.06 up from 2014 | 114 | 30% | $3,550 | ||
19Transnational Environmental LawCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.98Q2 | 0.64 0.30 down from 2014 | 72 | 45% | $3,550 | ||
20The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial LawTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.87Q2 | 0.45 0.10 up from 2014 | 54 | 23% | — | ||
21The International Journal of Evidence & ProofSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.87Q2 | 0.24 0.03 down from 2014 | 61 | 6% | $3,650 | ||
22Studies in the MaternalOAOpen Library of Humanities · United Kingdom | 0.87Q3 | 0.23 0.09 up from 2014 | 90 | 100% | — | ||
23Justice System JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.80Q3 | 0.23 0.04 down from 2014 | 224 | 6% | — | ||
24Journal of Human Rights and the EnvironmentEdward Elgar Publishing | 0.78Q3 | 0.41 0.70 down from 2014 | 45 | 60% | — | ||
25Liverpool Law ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.71Q3 | 0.24 0.05 up from 2014 | 46 | 44% | $3,090 | ||
26Law Culture and the HumanitiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.70Q3 | 0.17 0.02 up from 2014 | 119 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
27Zygon®OAWiley · United States | 0.53Q3 | 0.67 0.23 up from 2014 | 230 | 86% | $2,630 | ||
28International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridiqueSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.52Q3 | 0.20 0.20 down from 2014 | 136 | 19% | $3,090 | ||
29Australian Feminist Law JournalRoutledge · Australia | 0.44Q3 | 0.13 0.05 down from 2014 | 44 | 22% | — | ||
30International Journal of Rural Law and PolicyOAUTS ePRESS · Australia | 0.43Q3 | 0.46 0.32 up from 2014 | 33 | 100% | — | ||
31Journal of Electronic PublishingOAMichigan Publishing · United States | 0.43Q3 | 0.27 0.40 down from 2014 | 53 | 100% | — | ||
32International Journal of Law in the Built EnvironmentEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 0.40Q3 | 0.15 0.02 down from 2014 | 52 | 33% | — | ||
33Legal Information ManagementCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.25Q4 | 0.20 0.21 down from 2014 | 160 | 39% | $3,550 | ||
34IDP Revista de Internet Derecho y PolíticaOAOpen University of Catalonia · Spain | 0.24Q4 | 0.14no change | 63 | 100% | — | ||
35China-EU Law JournalSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.21Q4 | 0.06 0.01 down from 2014 | 39 | 0% | $3,090 | ||
36Datenschutz und Datensicherheit - DuDSpringer Science+Business Media | 0.19Q4 | 0.06 0.02 down from 2014 | 881 | 23% | $3,190 | ||
37Environmental Policy and LawIOS Press · Netherlands | 0.14Q4 | 0.04 0.01 up from 2014 | 97 | 13% | $0 listed | ||
38International Journal of Liability and Scientific EnquiryPublisher not listed | 0.11Q4 | 0.00no change | 42 | — | — | ||
39Zeitschrift für RechtssoziologieDe Gruyter · Germany | 0.09Q4 | 0.03 0.02 down from 2014 | 36 | 3% | $0 listed | ||
40Theoretical Roman Archaeology JournalOATheoretical Roman Archaeology Conference · United Kingdom | 0.08Q4 | 0.00 0.15 down from 2014 | 39 | 100% | — | ||
41Amicus CuriaeOAUnited Kingdom | 0.04Q4 | 0.00 0.02 down from 2014 | 429 | 100% | — | ||
42Derecho Animal Forum of Animal Law StudiesOAUniversitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Facultat de Dret · Spain | 0.02Q4 | 0.01 0.01 up from 2014 | 102 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Law 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 Law 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
- 42
- Window papers (baseline)
- 75,231 +24.8% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 0.87 -1.5% 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 | 26 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 36 | 39 | 37 | 40 | 45 | 42 | 46 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 47 | 45 | 46 | 46 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 20,760 | 23,088 | 25,138 | 27,078 | 29,298 | 32,993 | 37,542 | 42,263 | 45,900 | 49,233 | 52,379 | 56,365 | 60,266 | 63,498 | 67,376 | 75,231 | 83,225 | 90,875 | 93,598 | 96,498 | 99,517 | 107,426 | 115,990 | 118,267 | 121,355 | 126,586 | |
| Median OJR | 0.526 | 0.55 | 0.483 | 0.478 | 0.482 | 0.41 | 0.535 | 0.43 | 0.530 | 0.70 | 0.65 | 0.52 | 0.88 | 0.86 | 0.74 | 0.87 | 0.8856 | 0.91 | 0.95 | 0.99 | 0.901 | 0.85 | 0.896 | 0.8862 | 0.83 | 0.81 |
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.