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.
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)
1,184 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% | — | ||
2Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 14.77Q1 | 9.83 3.22 up from 2014 | 61 | 25% | $5,400 | ||
3American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.87Q1 | 7.08 0.65 down from 2014 | 144 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
4CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom | 11.80Q1 | 8.21 2.62 up from 2014 | 91 | 27% | $3,570 | ||
5Journal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationOAWiley · United States | 11.46Q1 | 7.10 1.46 up from 2014 | 132 | 67% | $0 listed | ||
6American Journal of SociologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 11.42Q1 | 4.38 0.96 down from 2014 | 117 | 8% | — | ||
7Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 10.62Q1 | 4.27no 2014 value | 82 | — | — | ||
8Journal of Peace ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.33Q1 | 3.89 0.73 down from 2014 | 192 | 16% | $3,900 | ||
9International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.48Q1 | 6.13 1.21 up from 2014 | 234 | 22% | $3,990 | ||
10Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.82Q1 | 4.97 0.37 up from 2014 | 517 | 23% | $4,690 | ||
11Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.60Q1 | 10.98 2.17 up from 2014 | 62 | 41% | $3,900 | ||
12Information Communication & SocietyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 8.24Q1 | 4.86 0.09 down from 2014 | 254 | 35% | — | ||
13European Journal of Information SystemsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 8.15Q1 | 4.63 0.36 up from 2014 | 132 | 40% | — | ||
14Journal of Research in Crime and DelinquencySAGE Publishing · United States | 8.12Q1 | 3.90 0.33 down from 2014 | 57 | 14% | $3,650 | ||
15Transactions of the Institute of British GeographersWiley · United Kingdom | 8.03Q1 | 3.78 0.08 down from 2014 | 139 | 37% | $4,070 | ||
16Internet ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 8.01Q1 | 5.80 1.26 up from 2014 | 90 | 10% | — | ||
17Information Systems JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 7.98Q1 | 5.13 0.54 up from 2014 | 61 | 24% | $5,110 | ||
18Research in Organizational BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.96Q1 | 3.70 0.08 down from 2014 | 30 | 27% | $2,340 | ||
19Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.50Q1 | 5.01no change | 206 | 20% | $4,540 | ||
20Information Systems ResearchInstitute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences · United States | 7.44Q1 | 4.74 0.25 down from 2014 | 165 | 13% | — | ||
21Sociological TheorySAGE Publishing · United States | 7.30Q1 | 3.65 0.26 down from 2014 | 50 | 13% | $3,900 | ||
22PoeticsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.21Q1 | 3.44 1.13 up from 2014 | 99 | 25% | $3,390 | ||
23Global Environmental ChangeElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.21Q1 | 8.71 1.21 up from 2014 | 402 | 53% | $6,440 | ||
24Journal of Development EconomicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.19Q1 | 3.19 0.79 down from 2014 | 282 | 35% | $4,590 | ||
25Administrative Science QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.00Q1 | 4.47 1.52 up from 2014 | 132 | 15% | $3,900 | ||
26Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic MediaTaylor & Francis · United States | 7.00Q1 | 3.90 0.07 up from 2014 | 120 | 9% | — | ||
27Journal of Quantitative CriminologySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 6.98Q1 | 3.77 0.98 up from 2014 | 84 | 16% | $4,090 | ||
28Security DialogueSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.92Q1 | 3.00 0.02 up from 2014 | 96 | 43% | $3,650 | ||
29Crime and JusticeUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 6.89Q1 | 5.11 3.44 up from 2014 | 30 | 8% | — | ||
30New Media & SocietySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.88Q1 | 4.02 0.06 down from 2014 | 370 | 21% | $3,900 | ||
31Information and OrganizationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 6.75Q1 | 3.94 0.90 down from 2014 | 44 | 15% | $3,590 | ||
32Theory and SocietySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 6.74Q1 | 3.37 1.39 up from 2014 | 77 | 23% | $2,890 | ||
33British Journal of SociologyWiley · United Kingdom | 6.71Q1 | 3.08 0.60 up from 2014 | 135 | 22% | $3,840 | ||
34International Studies QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 6.66Q1 | 2.91 0.43 up from 2014 | 226 | 37% | $4,320 | ||
35TSQ Transgender Studies QuarterlyDuke University Press · United States | 6.60Q1 | 3.59no 2014 value | 123 | 10% | — | — | |
36Annals of Tourism ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 6.57Q1 | 3.32 0.11 up from 2014 | 368 | 19% | $4,060 | ||
37Journal of Destination Marketing & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.56Q1 | 3.00 0.14 up from 2014 | 76 | 36% | $4,320 | ||
38World PoliticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 6.55Q1 | 2.87 0.52 up from 2014 | 91 | 22% | — | ||
39Journal of Travel ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.49Q1 | 3.91 0.08 down from 2014 | 233 | 26% | $3,900 | ||
40Journal of electronic commerce researchUnited States | 6.46Q1 | 3.15 0.66 down from 2014 | 43 | 0% | — | ||
41Computers in Human BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.38Q1 | 5.40 0.24 up from 2014 | 1,349 | 19% | $3,780 | ||
42Socio-Economic ReviewOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.36Q1 | 3.41 0.97 up from 2014 | 100 | 30% | $3,718 | ||
43Electronic Commerce Research and ApplicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.30Q1 | 3.48 0.75 down from 2014 | 119 | 23% | $3,210 | ||
44Journal of Applied PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.29Q1 | 5.76 0.53 down from 2014 | 262 | 27% | — | ||
45Justice QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.19Q1 | 2.51 0.60 down from 2014 | 136 | 26% | — | ||
46Journal of Information TechnologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.17Q1 | 3.86 0.02 down from 2014 | 88 | 32% | $3,900 | ||
47Environment and Planning D Society and SpaceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.13Q1 | 3.09 0.81 up from 2014 | 202 | 29% | $3,900 | ||
48Journal of Marriage and the FamilyWiley · United Kingdom | 6.09Q1 | 3.93 0.23 down from 2014 | 237 | 49% | $4,050 | ||
49Theoretical CriminologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.06Q1 | 2.50 0.39 up from 2014 | 90 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
50Decision Support SystemsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.00Q1 | 4.73 0.30 up from 2014 | 563 | 24% | $3,940 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Sociology and Political Science 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.
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.
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.
| 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 | 588 | 615 | 642 | 679 | 716 | 742 | 776 | 826 | 861 | 899 | 960 | 1,005 | 1,049 | 1,090 | 1,140 | 1,184 | 1,233 | 1,300 | 1,315 | 1,325 | 1,333 | 1,377 | 1,389 | 1,403 | 1,402 | 1,388 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 127,769 | 139,962 | 155,545 | 173,690 | 189,148 | 206,415 | 224,690 | 248,047 | 274,644 | 301,558 | 326,495 | 347,409 | 369,647 | 386,451 | 401,728 | 420,106 | 443,739 | 460,936 | 466,601 | 478,291 | 498,577 | 539,978 | 579,161 | 604,240 | 617,692 | 634,590 | |
| Median OJR | 0.92 | 0.98 | 0.95 | 0.99 | 1.09 | 1.1344 | 1.27 | 1.34 | 1.380 | 1.3830 | 1.44 | 1.43 | 1.47 | 1.42 | 1.3831 | 1.35 | 1.3317 | 1.3322 | 1.28 | 1.31 | 1.32 | 1.22 | 1.17 | 1.14 | 1.11 | 1.1341 |
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.