Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2016
Psychology journal rankings 2016
953 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Psychology has 953 ranked journals in 2016. The median journal has an OJR of 1.00, level with the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2015; Q1 starts at OJR 1.73. The top three are Therapeutic Recreation Journal, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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.
Subfields in Psychology (7)
Up to Social Sciences953 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Therapeutic Recreation JournalUnited States | 18.86Q1 | 32.87 6.46 down from 2015 | 73 | 12% | — | ||
2Perspectives on Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.15Q1 | 10.37 0.65 down from 2015 | 204 | 34% | $3,900 | ||
3Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.76Q1 | 8.34 2.03 up from 2015 | 368 | 25% | — | ||
4Psychological BulletinAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.65Q1 | 18.87 4.62 up from 2015 | 154 | 37% | — | ||
5JAMA PsychiatryAmerican Medical Association · United States | 5.81Q1 | 10.40 0.03 down from 2015 | 674 | 50% | — | ||
6Child Development PerspectivesWiley · United Kingdom | 5.58Q1 | 5.86 1.00 up from 2015 | 132 | 38% | $3,700 | ||
7Psychological MethodsAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 5.52Q1 | 5.85 0.82 down from 2015 | 104 | 40% | — | ||
8Journal of Behavioral AddictionsOAAkadémiai Kiadó · Hungary | 5.47Q1 | 6.17 0.88 up from 2015 | 99 | 100% | $916 | ||
9Reading Research QuarterlyWiley · United States | 5.45Q1 | 4.23 0.62 up from 2015 | 77 | 47% | $3,530 | ||
10Developmental ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 5.26Q1 | 7.25 0.34 up from 2015 | 68 | 39% | $4,330 | ||
11Journal of the Learning SciencesRoutledge · United States | 5.19Q1 | 3.20 1.59 down from 2015 | 56 | 41% | — | ||
12Language LearningWiley · United States | 5.15Q1 | 3.42 1.44 down from 2015 | 152 | 33% | $3,760 | ||
13Sign Language & LinguisticsJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 5.01Q1 | 2.10 0.19 down from 2015 | 45 | 7% | — | ||
14ReCALLCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.98Q1 | 2.75 0.42 down from 2015 | 85 | 44% | $3,550 | ||
15Child DevelopmentWiley · United Kingdom | 4.89Q1 | 5.37 0.38 up from 2015 | 411 | 50% | $4,320 | ||
16Journal of Computer Assisted LearningWiley · United Kingdom | 4.80Q1 | 3.10 0.33 down from 2015 | 122 | 19% | $4,150 | ||
17European PsychologistHogrefe Verlag · Germany | 4.54Q1 | 3.06 0.88 down from 2015 | 110 | 14% | — | ||
18American PsychologistAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.47Q1 | 4.23 0.65 up from 2015 | 410 | 15% | — | ||
19Clinical Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.37Q1 | 5.74 1.71 down from 2015 | 205 | 72% | $3,900 | ||
20Journal of Counseling PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.30Q1 | 4.10 0.48 down from 2015 | 200 | 12% | — | ||
21World PsychiatryWiley · Italy | 4.26Q1 | 7.97 1.40 up from 2015 | 267 | 98% | — | ||
22European Journal of PersonalitySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.24Q1 | 5.25 0.14 down from 2015 | 125 | 36% | $3,900 | ||
23American Journal of PsychiatryAmerican Psychiatric Association · United States | 4.09Q1 | 7.08 1.15 down from 2015 | 729 | 72% | — | ||
24IEEE Transactions on Affective ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 3.97Q1 | 5.73 0.14 down from 2015 | 140 | 26% | $2,645 | ||
25Journal of Consulting and Clinical PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.89Q1 | 6.43 0.03 down from 2015 | 307 | 60% | — | ||
26Contemporary Educational PsychologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.87Q1 | 5.18 1.44 up from 2015 | 114 | 38% | $4,720 | ||
27Journal of Child Psychology and PsychiatryWiley · United Kingdom | 3.86Q1 | 6.87no change | 372 | 60% | $4,530 | ||
28Developmental PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.83Q1 | 4.15 0.01 down from 2015 | 491 | 48% | — | ||
29School Psychology QuarterlyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.81Q1 | 3.63 0.06 up from 2015 | 124 | 35% | — | ||
30Journal of Abnormal PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.68Q1 | 5.65 1.08 down from 2015 | 263 | 49% | — | ||
31Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological SciencesRoyal Society · United Kingdom | 3.66Q1 | 7.42 0.11 up from 2015 | 1,167 | 96% | — | ||
32Scientific Studies of ReadingTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.63Q1 | 3.16 1.16 down from 2015 | 69 | 49% | — | ||
33Journal of Human-Robot InteractionUnited States | 3.46Q1 | 2.60 2.75 down from 2015 | 61 | 100% | — | ||
34Behaviour Research and TherapyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.46Q1 | 5.54 0.20 down from 2015 | 390 | 49% | $3,580 | ||
35Human DevelopmentKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 3.44Q1 | 4.67 2.94 up from 2015 | 119 | 50% | — | ||
36Journal of Aging StudiesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.42Q1 | 2.55 0.37 down from 2015 | 159 | 20% | $3,340 | ||
37Evolution and Human BehaviorElsevier BV · United States | 3.38Q1 | 4.26 0.19 down from 2015 | 218 | 31% | $4,330 | ||
38Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent PsychologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.35Q1 | 4.18 0.60 down from 2015 | 291 | 65% | — | ||
39Journal of Adolescent HealthElsevier BV · United States | 3.34Q1 | 5.01 0.09 up from 2015 | 817 | 38% | $3,670 | ||
40International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative LearningSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.33Q1 | 4.41 0.52 up from 2015 | 60 | 55% | $3,290 | ||
41Language Assessment QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.30Q1 | 1.83 0.34 down from 2015 | 66 | 17% | — | ||
42Clinical Psychology ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 3.28Q1 | 13.13 0.28 up from 2015 | 206 | 58% | $5,270 | ||
43Educational Psychology ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.24Q1 | 5.22 1.58 up from 2015 | 129 | 19% | $4,790 | ||
44Sleep HealthElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.23Q1 | 4.29no 2015 value | 70 | 30% | $3,000 | — | |
45Trauma Violence & AbuseSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.23Q1 | 3.85 0.12 down from 2015 | 135 | 23% | $3,900 | ||
46British Journal of Educational PsychologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.22Q1 | 2.78 0.64 down from 2015 | 94 | 45% | $3,760 | ||
47Law and Human BehaviorAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.21Q1 | 3.68 0.03 down from 2015 | 147 | 35% | — | ||
48Development and PsychopathologyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.20Q1 | 3.86 0.71 down from 2015 | 403 | 68% | $3,550 | ||
49Journal of Traumatic StressWiley · Netherlands | 3.20Q1 | 3.82 0.97 down from 2015 | 295 | 38% | $3,120 | ||
50Journal of Youth and AdolescenceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.17Q1 | 3.33 0.53 down from 2015 | 494 | 44% | $3,890 |
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.
219 additional Psychology 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
- 953
- Window papers (baseline)
- 308,630 +18.8% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 1.003 -1.5% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 68Comparison-group list (68)
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 | 519 | 548 | 577 | 590 | 609 | 627 | 650 | 677 | 713 | 736 | 759 | 789 | 812 | 836 | 872 | 914 | 953 | 976 | 1,000 | 1,008 | 1,032 | 1,032 | 1,044 | 1,049 | 1,036 | 1,032 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 100,368 | 108,714 | 116,356 | 126,019 | 132,361 | 141,328 | 150,104 | 163,997 | 178,881 | 196,566 | 212,190 | 230,053 | 245,061 | 259,850 | 274,026 | 290,061 | 308,630 | 323,270 | 336,144 | 346,025 | 361,777 | 394,757 | 437,922 | 469,605 | 479,050 | 491,558 | |
| Median OJR | 0.67 | 0.68 | 0.69 | 0.73 | 0.76 | 0.77 | 0.79 | 0.83 | 0.867 | 0.90 | 0.920 | 0.94 | 1.0178 | 1.0183 | 1.017 | 1.01 | 1.003 | 1.001 | 0.98 | 0.93 | 0.95 | 0.85 | 0.872 | 0.869 | 0.915 | 0.9249 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 3.9% | 730 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.819 per 1,000 | 625 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -1.9% | 962 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 55.7% | 1,032 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,390 | 484 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 21.7% | 951 journals |
| Review share | Median: 2.1% | 1,032 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.96 | 1,023 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 36.5% | 1,032 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 45.5% | 1,030 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.