OpenJournalRank

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

Sociology and Political Science journal rankings 2015

1,184 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences

Sociology and Political Science has 1,184 ranked journals in 2015. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.35 against 1.00, down 0.03 on 2014. A journal needs OJR 2.58 to reach Q1. The top three are MIS Quarterly, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and American Sociological Review.

Ranks and citation indicators: 2015. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.

Ranked journals

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.

1,184
43% of Social Sciences
Median OJR

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.

1.35-0.03 vs 2014
This subfieldAll 0.88World 1.00
Open-access journals

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.

20%
All fields: 29%
Median listed APC

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.

$3,550
Median positive listed APC: $3,550 among 430 journals. Another 10 list $0; 744 have no known price. All fields: $3,390.

Subfields of Social Sciences (22)

Show all 22 subfields

1,184 ranked journals

Filters

Quartile

Quartiles split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. Q1 is the top quarter and Q4 the bottom quarter.

They are computed within the list on screen, so a journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 in the global ranking.

Access
APC (list price)
Loading every ranked journal in this list…
Sociology and Political Science ranking, 2015

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.

OJR

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
16.39Q111.53 1.00 up from 201424925%—
2Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States
14.77Q19.83 3.22 up from 20146125%$5,400
3American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
13.87Q17.08 0.65 down from 201414433%$3,900
4CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom
11.80Q18.21 2.62 up from 20149127%$3,570
11.46Q17.10 1.46 up from 201413267%$0 listed
6American Journal of SociologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States
11.42Q14.38 0.96 down from 20141178%—
10.62Q14.27no 2014 value82——
8Journal of Peace ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
10.33Q13.89 0.73 down from 201419216%$3,900
9.48Q16.13 1.21 up from 201423422%$3,990
10Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands
8.82Q14.97 0.37 up from 201451723%$4,690
11Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States
8.60Q110.98 2.17 up from 20146241%$3,900
12Information Communication & SocietyRoutledge · United Kingdom
8.24Q14.86 0.09 down from 201425435%—
13European Journal of Information SystemsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom
8.15Q14.63 0.36 up from 201413240%—
14Journal of Research in Crime and DelinquencySAGE Publishing · United States
8.12Q13.90 0.33 down from 20145714%$3,650
8.03Q13.78 0.08 down from 201413937%$4,070
16Internet ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom
8.01Q15.80 1.26 up from 20149010%—
17Information Systems JournalWiley · United Kingdom
7.98Q15.13 0.54 up from 20146124%$5,110
18Research in Organizational BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands
7.96Q13.70 0.08 down from 20143027%$2,340
19Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands
7.50Q15.01no change20620%$4,540
20Information Systems ResearchInstitute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences · United States
7.44Q14.74 0.25 down from 201416513%—
21Sociological TheorySAGE Publishing · United States
7.30Q13.65 0.26 down from 20145013%$3,900
22PoeticsElsevier BV · Netherlands
7.21Q13.44 1.13 up from 20149925%$3,390
23Global Environmental ChangeElsevier BV · United Kingdom
7.21Q18.71 1.21 up from 201440253%$6,440
24Journal of Development EconomicsElsevier BV · Netherlands
7.19Q13.19 0.79 down from 201428235%$4,590
25Administrative Science QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
7.00Q14.47 1.52 up from 201413215%$3,900
26Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic MediaTaylor & Francis · United States
7.00Q13.90 0.07 up from 20141209%—
27Journal of Quantitative CriminologySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands
6.98Q13.77 0.98 up from 20148416%$4,090
28Security DialogueSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
6.92Q13.00 0.02 up from 20149643%$3,650
29Crime and JusticeUniversity of Chicago Press · United States
6.89Q15.11 3.44 up from 2014308%—
30New Media & SocietySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
6.88Q14.02 0.06 down from 201437021%$3,900
31Information and OrganizationElsevier BV · United Kingdom
6.75Q13.94 0.90 down from 20144415%$3,590
32Theory and SocietySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands
6.74Q13.37 1.39 up from 20147723%$2,890
33British Journal of SociologyWiley · United Kingdom
6.71Q13.08 0.60 up from 201413522%$3,840
34International Studies QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States
6.66Q12.91 0.43 up from 201422637%$4,320
35TSQ Transgender Studies QuarterlyDuke University Press · United States
6.60Q13.59no 2014 value12310%——
36Annals of Tourism ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom
6.57Q13.32 0.11 up from 201436819%$4,060
6.56Q13.00 0.14 up from 20147636%$4,320
38World PoliticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom
6.55Q12.87 0.52 up from 20149122%—
39Journal of Travel ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States
6.49Q13.91 0.08 down from 201423326%$3,900
6.46Q13.15 0.66 down from 2014430%—
41Computers in Human BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands
6.38Q15.40 0.24 up from 20141,34919%$3,780
42Socio-Economic ReviewOxford University Press · United Kingdom
6.36Q13.41 0.97 up from 201410030%$3,718
6.30Q13.48 0.75 down from 201411923%$3,210
44Journal of Applied PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States
6.29Q15.76 0.53 down from 201426227%—
45Justice QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom
6.19Q12.51 0.60 down from 201413626%—
46Journal of Information TechnologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
6.17Q13.86 0.02 down from 20148832%$3,900
47Environment and Planning D Society and SpaceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
6.13Q13.09 0.81 up from 201420229%$3,900
48Journal of Marriage and the FamilyWiley · United Kingdom
6.09Q13.93 0.23 down from 201423749%$4,050
49Theoretical CriminologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
6.06Q12.50 0.39 up from 20149024%$3,650
50Decision Support SystemsElsevier BV · Netherlands
6.00Q14.73 0.30 up from 201456324%$3,940

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.

335 additional Sociology and Political Science 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.

Rising journals

At a glance

Indicator year: 2015. Publication window: 2012–2014. How these summaries are calculated

Ranked journals
1,184
Window papers (baseline)
420,106 +13.7% from indicator year 2012
Median OJR
1.35 -7.7% from indicator year 2012
Rising journals (2025)
56

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.

Category by indicator year
MeasureYear series20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Ranked journals5886156426797167427768268618999601,0051,0491,0901,1401,1841,2331,3001,3151,3251,3331,3771,3891,4031,4021,388
Window papers (baseline)127,769139,962155,545173,690189,148206,415224,690248,047274,644301,558326,495347,409369,647386,451401,728420,106443,739460,936466,601478,291498,577539,978579,161604,240617,692634,590
Median OJR0.920.980.950.991.091.13441.271.341.3801.38301.441.431.471.421.38311.351.33171.33221.281.311.321.221.171.141.111.1341

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.