Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2016
Social Psychology journal rankings 2016
183 ranked journals · Subfield in Psychology
Social Psychology has 183 ranked journals in 2016. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.07 against 1.00, down 0.04 on 2015. A journal needs OJR 1.68 to reach Q1. 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 of Psychology (7)
183 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% | — | ||
4Journal of Counseling PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.30Q1 | 4.10 0.48 down from 2015 | 200 | 12% | — | ||
5Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological SciencesRoyal Society · United Kingdom | 3.66Q1 | 7.42 0.11 up from 2015 | 1,167 | 96% | — | ||
6Journal of Human-Robot InteractionUnited States | 3.46Q1 | 2.60 2.75 down from 2015 | 61 | 100% | — | ||
7Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender DiversityAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.09Q1 | 2.72 0.41 down from 2015 | 141 | 19% | — | ||
8Psychology Public Policy and LawAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.05Q1 | 2.57 0.83 down from 2015 | 100 | 26% | — | ||
9Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision MakingSAGE Publishing · United States | 2.96Q1 | 2.86 0.11 down from 2015 | 55 | 24% | $1,500 | ||
10Transportation Research Part F Traffic Psychology and BehaviourElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.91Q1 | 3.09 0.46 up from 2015 | 346 | 31% | $2,780 | ||
11International Journal of Social RoboticsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.84Q1 | 3.67 0.53 up from 2015 | 156 | 49% | $4,190 | ||
12Aggressive BehaviorWiley · United States | 2.74Q1 | 3.15 0.27 down from 2015 | 167 | 33% | $3,600 | ||
13The Journal of Positive PsychologyRoutledge | 2.71Q1 | 4.11 1.04 up from 2015 | 186 | 23% | — | ||
14Journal of Counseling & DevelopmentWiley · United States | 2.63Q1 | 3.09 0.51 up from 2015 | 158 | 17% | $2,900 | ||
15Social Psychology of EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.51Q1 | 1.84 0.10 down from 2015 | 112 | 28% | $3,290 | ||
16Attachment & Human DevelopmentTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.49Q1 | 3.04 0.50 down from 2015 | 107 | 46% | — | ||
17IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine SystemsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 2.45Q1 | 3.76 0.03 up from 2015 | 254 | 14% | $2,645 | ||
18Emotion ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.32Q1 | 2.41 1.84 down from 2015 | 239 | 26% | $3,900 | ||
19Hormones and BehaviorElsevier BV · United States | 2.26Q1 | 4.50 0.15 down from 2015 | 491 | 48% | $3,640 | ||
20International Journal of Mental Health SystemsOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.20Q1 | 2.82 0.09 up from 2015 | 124 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
21Journal of Cross-Cultural PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.19Q1 | 1.95 0.78 down from 2015 | 256 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
22Review of General PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.16Q1 | 2.86 0.19 up from 2015 | 108 | 11% | $3,900 | ||
23International Journal of WellbeingOAInternational Journal of Wellbeing · New Zealand | 2.16Q1 | 2.23 0.61 down from 2015 | 56 | 100% | — | ||
24Journal of Happiness StudiesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.13Q1 | 2.21 0.13 down from 2015 | 299 | 28% | $3,490 | ||
25Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.12Q1 | 3.11 0.51 up from 2015 | 259 | 29% | $1,500 | ||
26Journal of School ViolenceTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.09Q1 | 2.28 0.34 down from 2015 | 86 | 13% | — | ||
27Sexuality Research and Social PolicySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.07Q1 | 2.25 0.11 up from 2015 | 104 | 34% | $2,990 | ||
28Humor - International Journal of Humor ResearchDe Gruyter Mouton · Germany | 2.05Q1 | 2.49 1.28 up from 2015 | 105 | 20% | $2,712 | ||
29Journal of Family CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.05Q1 | 2.22 0.17 up from 2015 | 66 | 3% | — | ||
30Motivation and EmotionSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.04Q1 | 2.72 0.24 up from 2015 | 195 | 15% | $3,190 | ||
31Journal of LGBT YouthTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.01Q1 | 1.84 0.07 down from 2015 | 68 | 6% | — | ||
32Leisure SciencesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 2.54 0.69 up from 2015 | 85 | 16% | — | ||
33Journal of Nonverbal BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.95Q1 | 2.20 0.26 up from 2015 | 84 | 26% | $3,290 | ||
34International Journal of PsychologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.95Q1 | 1.96 0.02 down from 2015 | 267 | 50% | $3,570 | ||
35New Ideas in PsychologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.92Q1 | 1.86 0.39 down from 2015 | 92 | 10% | $3,600 | ||
36The Canadian Journal of Human SexualityUniversity of Toronto Press · Canada | 1.89Q1 | 2.40 0.85 up from 2015 | 61 | 8% | — | ||
37Communication EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.89Q1 | 2.34 0.21 down from 2015 | 85 | 7% | — | ||
37Applied ErgonomicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.89Q1 | 2.48 0.03 down from 2015 | 538 | 30% | $3,400 | ||
39Journal of HomosexualityTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.89Q1 | 1.49 0.11 up from 2015 | 325 | 17% | — | ||
40LGBT HealthMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.85Q1 | 2.85 0.09 up from 2015 | 128 | 42% | — | ||
41International Journal of Human-Computer InteractionTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.80Q1 | 2.40 0.05 down from 2015 | 203 | 27% | — | ||
42The Journal of PsychologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.80Q1 | 2.14 0.62 up from 2015 | 143 | 25% | — | ||
43Psychology and SexualityTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.79Q1 | 2.32 0.02 down from 2015 | 58 | 33% | — | ||
44Journal of Social and Personal RelationshipsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.79Q1 | 1.71 0.33 down from 2015 | 195 | 27% | $3,650 | ||
45Journal for Social Action in Counseling & PsychologyOAUnited States | 1.78Q1 | 1.06 0.10 up from 2015 | 35 | 100% | — | ||
46Communication QuarterlyRoutledge · United States | 1.68Q1 | 1.42 0.19 up from 2015 | 116 | 10% | — | ||
47Integrative Psychological and Behavioral ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.63Q2 | 1.78 0.11 up from 2015 | 110 | 17% | $3,390 | ||
48Journal of Leisure ResearchTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.62Q2 | 1.64 0.48 up from 2015 | 115 | 10% | — | ||
49Small Group ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.60Q2 | 1.91 0.16 up from 2015 | 109 | 9% | $3,650 | ||
50Culture & PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 1.60Q2 | 1.73 0.08 up from 2015 | 95 | 5% | $3,650 |
Subfields of Psychology, with Social Psychology highlighted.
- Clinical Psychology548
- Social Psychology183
- Developmental and Educational Psychology116
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology92
- Applied Psychology9
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology4
- General Psychology1
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.
46 additional Social 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
- 183
- Window papers (baseline)
- 90,662 +18.1% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 1.07 -2.7% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 6
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 | 101 | 109 | 116 | 119 | 121 | 122 | 124 | 127 | 136 | 140 | 151 | 156 | 159 | 163 | 173 | 184 | 183 | 188 | 193 | 191 | 199 | 197 | 201 | 196 | 188 | 190 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 28,066 | 30,845 | 33,076 | 35,905 | 37,696 | 40,350 | 42,722 | 46,442 | 50,784 | 56,475 | 61,672 | 67,696 | 72,356 | 76,793 | 80,841 | 85,396 | 90,662 | 94,142 | 97,395 | 100,160 | 105,268 | 112,687 | 120,908 | 126,957 | 130,021 | 137,461 | |
| Median OJR | 0.57 | 0.56 | 0.54 | 0.61 | 0.670 | 0.6778 | 0.673 | 0.64 | 0.6780 | 0.8596 | 0.8604 | 0.95 | 1.003 | 1.10 | 1.04 | 1.12 | 1.07 | 1.09 | 1.01 | 1.03 | 0.99 | 0.921 | 0.922 | 0.923 | 0.925 | 0.90 |
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.