Journal rankings · indicator year 2015
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2015
Social Sciences journal rankings 2015
2,755 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Social Sciences has 2,755 ranked journals in 2015. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.35 against 1.00, unchanged on 2014. A journal needs OJR 2.57 to reach Q1. The top three are MIS Quarterly, Review of Research in Education, and American Journal of Political Science.
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 in Social Sciences (22)
Up to Social Sciences2,755 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1MIS QuarterlyMIS Quarterly · United States | 16.39Q1 | 11.53 1.00 up from 2014 | 249 | 25% | — | ||
2Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 15.60Q1 | 6.52 1.02 up from 2014 | 38 | 0% | $2,500 | ||
3American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 14.99Q1 | 6.10 1.47 up from 2014 | 228 | 31% | $4,100 | ||
4Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 14.77Q1 | 9.83 3.22 up from 2014 | 61 | 25% | $5,400 | ||
5Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 14.56Q1 | 6.20 0.23 up from 2014 | 215 | 25% | $4,360 | ||
6American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.87Q1 | 7.08 0.65 down from 2014 | 144 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
7American Educational Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.61Q1 | 5.32 0.19 up from 2014 | 120 | 6% | $2,500 | ||
8Review of Educational ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 13.34Q1 | 10.22 0.20 down from 2014 | 65 | 13% | $2,500 | ||
9Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 13.04Q1 | 7.32 1.90 up from 2014 | 155 | 6% | $2,500 | ||
10American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 12.36Q1 | 4.38 1.27 down from 2014 | 172 | 34% | $3,550 | ||
11CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom | 11.80Q1 | 8.21 2.62 up from 2014 | 91 | 27% | $3,570 | ||
12Journal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationOAWiley · United States | 11.46Q1 | 7.10 1.46 up from 2014 | 132 | 67% | $0 listed | ||
13American Journal of SociologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 11.42Q1 | 4.38 0.96 down from 2014 | 117 | 8% | — | ||
14Educational Administration QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 11.41Q1 | 3.29 0.91 down from 2014 | 85 | 0% | $3,900 | ||
15Educational PsychologistRoutledge · United States | 11.33Q1 | 12.16 3.21 up from 2014 | 54 | 12% | — | ||
16The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 11.28Q1 | 7.08 0.17 down from 2014 | 84 | 21% | $4,120 | ||
17Journal of Teacher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 11.05Q1 | 4.40 0.26 up from 2014 | 130 | 9% | $3,900 | ||
18European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 10.84Q1 | 3.64 1.15 up from 2014 | 106 | 29% | $3,550 | ||
19Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 10.62Q1 | 4.27no 2014 value | 82 | — | — | ||
20Journal of Peace ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.33Q1 | 3.89 0.73 down from 2014 | 192 | 16% | $3,900 | ||
21Progress in Human GeographySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.21Q1 | 5.34 0.25 up from 2014 | 184 | 15% | $3,900 | ||
22Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 9.86Q1 | 3.99 0.29 down from 2014 | 134 | 35% | $3,550 | ||
23International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.48Q1 | 6.13 1.21 up from 2014 | 234 | 22% | $3,990 | ||
24Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 9.41Q1 | 3.44 0.17 up from 2014 | 252 | 43% | — | ||
25Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.85Q1 | 2.89 2.00 down from 2014 | 97 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
26Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.82Q1 | 4.97 0.37 up from 2014 | 517 | 23% | $4,690 | ||
27Journal of CommunicationOxford University Press · United States | 8.81Q1 | 5.15 0.82 down from 2014 | 215 | 17% | $4,235 | ||
28Journal of Economic GrowthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 8.80Q1 | 4.18 0.01 up from 2014 | 31 | 33% | $4,290 | ||
29Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.69Q1 | 3.63 0.67 up from 2014 | 184 | 13% | $3,900 | ||
30Computers & EducationElsevier BV · United States | 8.65Q1 | 6.04 0.30 up from 2014 | 759 | 20% | $5,190 | ||
31Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.60Q1 | 10.98 2.17 up from 2014 | 62 | 41% | $3,900 | ||
32The Future of ChildrenPrinceton School of Public and International Affairs · United States | 8.39Q1 | 6.77 1.69 up from 2014 | 46 | 25% | — | ||
33International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 8.35Q1 | 3.72 1.00 down from 2014 | 80 | 27% | — | ||
34Educational Evaluation and Policy AnalysisSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.28Q1 | 3.29 0.01 down from 2014 | 90 | 29% | $2,500 | ||
35European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.26Q1 | 2.12 0.28 down from 2014 | 92 | 16% | $3,650 | ||
36Information Communication & SocietyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 8.24Q1 | 4.86 0.09 down from 2014 | 254 | 35% | — | ||
37Research & Practice in AssessmentPublisher not listed | 8.18Q1 | 8.14 0.43 up from 2014 | 30 | 0% | — | ||
38Sociology of EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.17Q1 | 2.58 0.40 down from 2014 | 65 | 25% | $3,650 | ||
39Journal of Engineering EducationWiley · United States | 8.16Q1 | 5.77 1.14 up from 2014 | 104 | 15% | $3,710 | ||
40European Journal of Information SystemsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 8.15Q1 | 4.63 0.36 up from 2014 | 132 | 40% | — | ||
41Journal of Research in Crime and DelinquencySAGE Publishing · United States | 8.12Q1 | 3.90 0.33 down from 2014 | 57 | 14% | $3,650 | ||
42European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.11Q1 | 3.61 0.73 up from 2014 | 105 | 39% | $3,900 | ||
43Transactions of the Institute of British GeographersWiley · United Kingdom | 8.03Q1 | 3.78 0.08 down from 2014 | 139 | 37% | $4,070 | ||
44Communication TheoryWiley · United States | 8.03Q1 | 4.78 0.27 up from 2014 | 74 | 11% | $4,235 | ||
45Internet ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 8.01Q1 | 5.80 1.26 up from 2014 | 90 | 10% | — | ||
46Information Systems JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 7.98Q1 | 5.13 0.54 up from 2014 | 61 | 24% | $5,110 | ||
47Research in Organizational BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.96Q1 | 3.70 0.08 down from 2014 | 30 | 27% | $2,340 | ||
48Active Learning in Higher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.93Q1 | 4.03 0.80 up from 2014 | 51 | 21% | $3,900 | ||
49Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.85Q1 | 3.39 0.93 up from 2014 | 185 | 23% | — | ||
50Philosophy & Public AffairsWiley · United States | 7.82Q1 | 2.32 0.39 up from 2014 | 45 | 20% | $3,460 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, compared.
- 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.
827 additional Social Sciences 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
- 2,755
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,400,086 +18.1% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 1.352 -3.6% from indicator year 2012
- Rising journals (2025)
- 134Comparison-group list (134)
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 | 1,406 | 1,451 | 1,539 | 1,622 | 1,698 | 1,765 | 1,844 | 1,932 | 2,018 | 2,111 | 2,231 | 2,335 | 2,450 | 2,548 | 2,662 | 2,755 | 2,851 | 2,959 | 2,994 | 3,028 | 3,056 | 3,141 | 3,149 | 3,144 | 3,107 | 3,066 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 443,953 | 481,120 | 524,797 | 573,040 | 615,403 | 666,449 | 723,952 | 792,817 | 867,532 | 946,631 | 1,027,940 | 1,103,353 | 1,185,358 | 1,256,728 | 1,323,833 | 1,400,086 | 1,483,492 | 1,554,301 | 1,600,611 | 1,663,801 | 1,760,718 | 1,914,483 | 2,065,185 | 2,148,493 | 2,214,535 | 2,302,259 | |
| Median OJR | 0.86 | 0.91 | 0.92 | 0.97 | 1.03 | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.30 | 1.365 | 1.382 | 1.43 | 1.42 | 1.40 | 1.377 | 1.356 | 1.352 | 1.353 | 1.346 | 1.31 | 1.33 | 1.32 | 1.23 | 1.194 | 1.187 | 1.18 | 1.20 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.7% | 1,882 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.498 per 1,000 | 1,610 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -2.6% | 2,852 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 58.5% | 3,066 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,400 | 1,164 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 18.2% | 2,785 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 3,066 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 1.22 | 3,041 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 44.4% | 3,066 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 49.7% | 3,059 journals |
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.