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
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2015
301 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 301 ranked journals in 2015. The median OJR rose 0.14 on 2014 to 1.83, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 3.20. The top three are American Journal of Political Science, Government Information Quarterly, and American Political Science 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)
301 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 14.99Q1 | 6.10 1.47 up from 2014 | 228 | 31% | $4,100 | ||
2Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 14.56Q1 | 6.20 0.23 up from 2014 | 215 | 25% | $4,360 | ||
3American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 12.36Q1 | 4.38 1.27 down from 2014 | 172 | 34% | $3,550 | ||
4European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 10.84Q1 | 3.64 1.15 up from 2014 | 106 | 29% | $3,550 | ||
5Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 9.86Q1 | 3.99 0.29 down from 2014 | 134 | 35% | $3,550 | ||
6Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 9.41Q1 | 3.44 0.17 up from 2014 | 252 | 43% | — | ||
7Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.85Q1 | 2.89 2.00 down from 2014 | 97 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
8Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.69Q1 | 3.63 0.67 up from 2014 | 184 | 13% | $3,900 | ||
9International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 8.35Q1 | 3.72 1.00 down from 2014 | 80 | 27% | — | ||
10European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.26Q1 | 2.12 0.28 down from 2014 | 92 | 16% | $3,650 | ||
11European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.11Q1 | 3.61 0.73 up from 2014 | 105 | 39% | $3,900 | ||
12Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.85Q1 | 3.39 0.93 up from 2014 | 185 | 23% | — | ||
13Philosophy & Public AffairsWiley · United States | 7.82Q1 | 2.32 0.39 up from 2014 | 45 | 20% | $3,460 | ||
14GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom | 7.77Q1 | 3.46 0.67 up from 2014 | 144 | 21% | $3,730 | ||
15The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 7.60Q1 | 2.24 0.01 down from 2014 | 382 | 10% | — | ||
16JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 7.32Q1 | 2.64 0.03 up from 2014 | 336 | 21% | $4,170 | ||
17Territory Politics GovernanceTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.16Q1 | 2.95 2.28 down from 2014 | 38 | 33% | — | ||
18Political Science Research and MethodsOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 6.98Q1 | 2.66 1.19 up from 2014 | 64 | 27% | $3,550 | ||
19West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.85Q1 | 2.27 0.16 up from 2014 | 315 | 30% | — | ||
20International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.56Q1 | 2.25 0.22 down from 2014 | 212 | 7% | $4,936 | ||
21Quarterly Journal of Political ScienceNow Publishers · United States | 6.51Q1 | 2.91 0.44 up from 2014 | 47 | 19% | — | ||
22Policy Studies JournalWiley · United States | 6.47Q1 | 3.72 0.01 up from 2014 | 121 | 33% | $4,050 | ||
23British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 6.40Q1 | 2.41 0.47 up from 2014 | 190 | 57% | $3,550 | ||
24Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 6.21Q1 | 2.51 0.84 up from 2014 | 147 | 17% | — | ||
25South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.15Q1 | 2.89 0.42 up from 2014 | 89 | 32% | — | ||
26The Chinese Journal of International PoliticsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.13Q1 | 1.82 0.38 down from 2014 | 53 | 23% | $3,981 | ||
27Journal of Elections Public Opinion and PartiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.88Q1 | 1.69 0.25 up from 2014 | 78 | 20% | — | ||
28Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 5.66Q1 | 1.95 0.23 down from 2014 | 220 | 5% | — | ||
29Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.55Q1 | 2.01 0.09 down from 2014 | 344 | 25% | $2,290 | ||
30Security StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.51Q1 | 1.76 0.88 up from 2014 | 87 | 16% | — | ||
31Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 5.46Q1 | 1.87 0.49 down from 2014 | 199 | 24% | $3,969 | ||
32Transforming Government People Process and PolicyEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 5.39Q1 | 2.49 0.33 up from 2014 | 79 | 13% | — | ||
33Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 5.34Q1 | 2.07 0.84 up from 2014 | 135 | 35% | $3,290 | ||
34Political Research QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 5.31Q1 | 1.81 0.29 up from 2014 | 170 | 10% | $3,650 | ||
35Higher Education QuarterlyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.21Q1 | 2.16 0.34 up from 2014 | 80 | 36% | $2,900 | ||
36Studies in Comparative International DevelopmentSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 5.20Q1 | 1.79 0.06 down from 2014 | 65 | 19% | $3,390 | ||
37Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.12Q1 | 2.24 0.55 up from 2014 | 105 | 23% | $2,990 | ||
38Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.11Q1 | 1.83 0.24 down from 2014 | 260 | 16% | $3,650 | ||
39Comparative EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.04Q1 | 1.71 0.23 down from 2014 | 130 | 34% | — | ||
40Global Responsibility to ProtectBrill · Netherlands | 4.97Q1 | 1.83 0.97 up from 2014 | 65 | 19% | — | ||
41Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.88Q1 | 1.33 0.02 up from 2014 | 222 | 15% | $3,650 | ||
42Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.87Q1 | 1.84 0.31 up from 2014 | 343 | 23% | $2,840 | ||
43International Political Science ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.67Q1 | 1.31 0.40 down from 2014 | 131 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
44The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.48Q1 | 2.08 0.12 down from 2014 | 131 | 25% | $3,650 | ||
45Acta PoliticaPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 4.44Q1 | 1.18 0.60 down from 2014 | 105 | 28% | $3,190 | ||
46Policy & PoliticsPolicy Press · United Kingdom | 4.32Q1 | 2.41 0.49 up from 2014 | 112 | 38% | — | ||
47The China QuarterlyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.22Q1 | 1.66 0.01 up from 2014 | 168 | 11% | $3,550 | ||
48Police QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 4.20Q1 | 1.53 0.85 down from 2014 | 63 | 21% | $3,650 | ||
49Political Studies ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.18Q1 | 0.90 0.71 down from 2014 | 88 | 2% | $3,650 | ||
50Regional & Federal StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.16Q1 | 1.66 0.63 up from 2014 | 106 | 10% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations 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.
85 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 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
- 301
- Window papers (baseline)
- 223,416 +16.6% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 1.83 +5.8% from indicator year 2012
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
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 | 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.