Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Global ranking · 2016
Journal rankings 2016
19,793 ranked journals in 4 domains, 26 fields and 252 subfields
This release ranks 19,793 journals for 2016. The median journal has an OJR of 0.86, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.02 on 2015; Q1 starts at OJR 1.57. The top three are CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Review of Research in Education, and The Journal of Economic Perspectives. Small journals can score very high; only journals with at least 30 citable documents are ranked.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2016. 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 2013–2015, the window the 2016 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.
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4 domains · 26 fields · 252 subfields19,793 ranked journals
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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 2015. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2013–2015, the window the 2016 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2013–2015 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 2007 to 2016. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CA A Cancer Journal for CliniciansOAWiley · United States | 64.20Q1 | 185.98 46.55 up from 2015 | 80 | 100% | $4,330 | ||
2Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 24.85Q1 | 4.92 1.60 down from 2015 | 36 | 8% | $2,500 | ||
3The Journal of Economic PerspectivesOAAmerican Economic Association · United States | 21.65Q1 | 11.02 0.57 up from 2015 | 146 | 60% | — | ||
4The Quarterly Journal of EconomicsOxford University Press · United States | 20.55Q1 | 9.64 0.20 down from 2015 | 157 | 44% | $7,619 | ||
5Therapeutic Recreation JournalUnited States | 18.86Q1 | 32.87 6.46 down from 2015 | 73 | 12% | — | ||
6Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 18.85Q1 | 39.41 2.38 up from 2015 | 119 | 74% | — | ||
7IMF staff discussion noteInternational Monetary Fund | 17.98Q1 | 11.27 1.23 up from 2015 | 47 | 33% | — | ||
8Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 17.72Q1 | 9.19 0.64 down from 2015 | 55 | 26% | $5,400 | ||
9New England Journal of MedicineMassachusetts Medical Society · United States | 17.08Q1 | 35.55 4.15 up from 2015 | 2,763 | 39% | — | ||
10Academy of Management AnnalsRoutledge · United States | 16.48Q1 | 10.31 3.77 down from 2015 | 87 | 9% | — | ||
11IEEE Communications Surveys & TutorialsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 16.46Q1 | 25.18 3.92 up from 2015 | 302 | 31% | $2,645 | ||
12Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 15.98Q1 | 9.75 2.43 up from 2015 | 145 | 16% | $2,500 | ||
13Materials Science and Engineering R ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 15.62Q1 | 34.33 2.33 up from 2015 | 37 | 24% | $6,150 | ||
14Progress in Materials ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 15.45Q1 | 28.63 2.35 down from 2015 | 73 | 32% | $6,040 | ||
15American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 15.10Q1 | 5.24 0.86 down from 2015 | 244 | 27% | $4,100 | ||
16MIS QuarterlyMIS Quarterly · United States | 15.04Q1 | 9.67 1.86 down from 2015 | 184 | 25% | — | ||
17Progress in Energy and Combustion ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 14.88Q1 | 22.81 2.51 up from 2015 | 55 | 22% | $6,990 | ||
18Journal of Business VenturingElsevier BV · Netherlands | 14.70Q1 | 6.56 2.30 down from 2015 | 106 | 41% | $4,130 | ||
19ACM Computing SurveysAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 14.47Q1 | 14.89 0.74 up from 2015 | 213 | 30% | — | ||
20American Educational Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 14.29Q1 | 6.83 1.51 up from 2015 | 111 | 23% | $2,500 | ||
21The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 13.82Q1 | 8.42 1.34 up from 2015 | 87 | 23% | $4,120 | ||
22Journal of Teacher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 12.96Q1 | 4.59 0.20 up from 2015 | 131 | 17% | $3,900 | ||
23Journal of Accounting and EconomicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 12.94Q1 | 5.12 0.80 down from 2015 | 122 | 11% | $4,170 | ||
24American Economic ReviewAmerican Economic Association · United States | 12.89Q1 | 6.95 1.93 down from 2015 | 786 | 10% | — | ||
25Clinical Microbiology ReviewsAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 12.73Q1 | 27.23 5.31 up from 2015 | 116 | 89% | — | ||
26The Journal of FinanceWiley · United States | 12.50Q1 | 6.43 0.31 down from 2015 | 280 | 21% | $4,430 | ||
27Educational Evaluation and Policy AnalysisSAGE Publishing · United States | 12.48Q1 | 5.51 2.21 up from 2015 | 88 | 27% | $2,500 | ||
28Journal of International Business StudiesPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 12.48Q1 | 8.63 2.16 up from 2015 | 176 | 49% | $4,790 | ||
29Progress in Polymer ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 12.35Q1 | 20.94 6.67 down from 2015 | 189 | 11% | $6,500 | ||
30Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.16Q1 | 8.35 0.77 down from 2015 | 71 | 100% | $2,000 | ||
31American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.14Q1 | 6.76 0.33 down from 2015 | 148 | 27% | $3,900 | ||
32Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 12.04Q1 | 5.91 0.28 down from 2015 | 202 | 30% | $4,360 | ||
33CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom | 11.94Q1 | 7.33 0.87 down from 2015 | 87 | 36% | $3,570 | ||
34Journal Of Big DataOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 11.89Q1 | 10.13 3.38 up from 2015 | 32 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
35Educational PsychologistRoutledge · United States | 11.76Q1 | 10.18 1.98 down from 2015 | 56 | 22% | — | ||
| 11.74Q1 | 4.76 4.40 up from 2015 | 46 | 100% | — | |||
37International Journal of Computer VisionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 11.57Q1 | 14.07 3.17 up from 2015 | 248 | 41% | $4,090 | ||
38Journal of Law and CourtsUniversity of Chicago Press | 11.37Q1 | 1.38 0.25 down from 2015 | 40 | 16% | $3,550 | ||
39American Economic Journal Applied EconomicsAmerican Economic Association · United States | 11.12Q1 | 6.87 0.40 up from 2015 | 125 | 50% | — | ||
40Journal of Economic GrowthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 11.08Q1 | 6.58 2.40 up from 2015 | 33 | 38% | $4,290 | ||
41Academy of Management JournalAcademy of Management · United States | 11.02Q1 | 7.97 1.26 up from 2015 | 248 | 24% | — | ||
42American Economic Journal MacroeconomicsAmerican Economic Association · United States | 11.00Q1 | 4.92 0.28 up from 2015 | 104 | 41% | — | ||
43Academy of Management ReviewAcademy of Management · United States | 11.00Q1 | 7.45 0.97 up from 2015 | 136 | 21% | — | ||
44Journal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationOAWiley · United States | 10.99Q1 | 6.50 0.60 down from 2015 | 133 | 80% | $0 listed | ||
45American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 10.94Q1 | 3.69 0.69 down from 2015 | 172 | 35% | $3,550 | ||
46Review of Educational ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 10.89Q1 | 8.00 2.22 down from 2015 | 74 | 19% | $2,500 | ||
47International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 10.86Q1 | 3.35 0.37 down from 2015 | 75 | 13% | — | ||
48Journal of MarketingSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.78Q1 | 6.87 0.33 down from 2015 | 136 | 17% | $5,400 | ||
49The Future of ChildrenPrinceton School of Public and International Affairs · United States | 10.75Q1 | 4.69 2.07 down from 2015 | 47 | 14% | — | ||
50Academy of Management PerspectivesAcademy of Management · United States | 10.66Q1 | 5.69 0.51 down from 2015 | 119 | 21% | — |
All 26 fields, compared. Choose a field to open its ranking.
- MedicineHealth Sciences3,936
- Social SciencesSocial Sciences2,851
- EngineeringPhysical Sciences2,188
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyLife Sciences1,311
- Agricultural and Biological SciencesLife Sciences1,098
- Computer SciencePhysical Sciences1,044
- PsychologySocial Sciences953
- Environmental SciencePhysical Sciences879
- Economics, Econometrics and FinanceSocial Sciences826
- Business, Management and AccountingSocial Sciences699
- MathematicsPhysical Sciences575
- Health ProfessionsHealth Sciences527
- Arts and HumanitiesSocial Sciences460
- Materials SciencePhysical Sciences433
- Earth and Planetary SciencesPhysical Sciences397
- Physics and AstronomyPhysical Sciences334
- NeuroscienceLife Sciences314
- ChemistryPhysical Sciences235
- Decision SciencesSocial Sciences186
- DentistryHealth Sciences176
- Immunology and MicrobiologyLife Sciences126
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and PharmaceuticsLife Sciences74
- VeterinaryHealth Sciences62
- NursingHealth Sciences56
- EnergyPhysical Sciences41
- Chemical EngineeringPhysical Sciences12
Journals
Citations made in 2016. Corpus-wide, 77.2% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
6,144 additional journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2013–2015, 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: 2016. Publication window: 2013–2015. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 19,793
- Window papers (baseline)
- 13,715,975 +11.3% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 0.863 -5.7% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 1,582
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2013–2015 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 | 9,334 | 9,882 | 10,465 | 10,963 | 11,336 | 11,787 | 12,241 | 12,896 | 13,532 | 14,190 | 14,881 | 15,682 | 16,548 | 17,494 | 18,331 | 19,108 | 19,793 | 20,381 | 20,896 | 21,252 | 21,436 | 21,674 | 21,881 | 21,925 | 21,772 | 21,493 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 4,957,530 | 5,479,186 | 5,909,824 | 6,400,037 | 6,719,812 | 7,257,868 | 7,834,893 | 8,493,980 | 9,133,243 | 9,844,442 | 10,531,968 | 11,212,660 | 11,823,613 | 12,322,010 | 12,852,915 | 13,340,497 | 13,715,975 | 13,759,987 | 13,523,013 | 13,360,605 | 13,565,535 | 14,325,423 | 15,089,410 | 15,369,095 | 15,403,861 | 15,824,017 | |
| Median OJR | 0.66 | 0.68 | 0.71 | 0.75 | 0.76 | 0.791 | 0.838 | 0.862 | 0.89 | 0.919 | 0.93 | 0.941 | 0.935 | 0.915 | 0.90 | 0.88 | 0.863 | 0.843 | 0.83 | 0.822 | 0.823 | 0.794 | 0.777 | 0.7721 | 0.7719 | 0.784 |
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.