Journal rankings · indicator year 2017
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2017
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2017
318 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 318 ranked journals in 2017. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.87 against 1.00, down 0.05 on 2016. A journal needs OJR 3.32 to reach Q1. The top three are American Journal of Political Science, Government Information Quarterly, and South European Society & Politics.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2017. 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 2014–2016, the window the 2017 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)
318 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 2016. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2014–2016, the window the 2017 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2014–2016 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 2008 to 2017. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 15.79Q1 | 4.60 0.64 down from 2016 | 197 | 23% | $4,100 | ||
2Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 12.19Q1 | 6.88 0.97 up from 2016 | 228 | 31% | $4,360 | ||
3South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 11.84Q1 | 2.95 1.05 down from 2016 | 96 | 44% | — | ||
4International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 10.37Q1 | 4.58 1.24 up from 2016 | 75 | 19% | — | ||
5European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 10.35Q1 | 3.91 1.12 up from 2016 | 138 | 42% | $3,550 | ||
6American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 10.14Q1 | 4.27 0.58 up from 2016 | 178 | 36% | $3,550 | ||
7Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 9.87Q1 | 4.42 0.70 up from 2016 | 293 | 52% | — | ||
8West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.53Q1 | 3.04 0.07 down from 2016 | 273 | 46% | — | ||
9Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.17Q1 | 3.93 1.01 up from 2016 | 160 | 30% | — | ||
10Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.95Q1 | 3.18 0.17 down from 2016 | 189 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
11Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 8.45Q1 | 3.15 1.10 up from 2016 | 218 | 11% | — | ||
12Quarterly Journal of Political ScienceNow Publishers · United States | 7.61Q1 | 3.85 1.25 up from 2016 | 43 | 30% | — | ||
13European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.23Q1 | 2.89 0.18 down from 2016 | 127 | 43% | $3,900 | ||
14JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 7.23Q1 | 2.91 0.34 up from 2016 | 315 | 23% | $4,170 | ||
15Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.89Q1 | 2.87 0.01 up from 2016 | 99 | 47% | $3,650 | ||
16Journal of Political IdeologiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 6.77Q1 | 1.68 0.27 up from 2016 | 57 | 30% | — | ||
17Acta PoliticaPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 6.72Q1 | 3.12 0.54 up from 2016 | 102 | 62% | $3,190 | ||
18The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 6.63Q1 | 2.80 0.62 up from 2016 | 310 | 12% | — | ||
19Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 6.60Q1 | 1.86 0.43 down from 2016 | 155 | 49% | — | ||
20Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 6.57Q1 | 2.26 0.68 down from 2016 | 127 | 65% | $3,550 | ||
21European Law JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 6.47Q1 | 2.10 0.41 up from 2016 | 112 | 51% | $3,570 | ||
22British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 6.39Q1 | 1.93 0.29 down from 2016 | 188 | 46% | $3,550 | ||
23Comparative EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.33Q1 | 1.93 0.04 up from 2016 | 123 | 30% | — | ||
24Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 6.23Q1 | 2.40 1.45 up from 2016 | 120 | 22% | — | ||
25International TheoryOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 6.19Q1 | 2.09 0.62 down from 2016 | 92 | 83% | $3,550 | ||
26Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.16Q1 | 1.99 0.57 up from 2016 | 211 | 27% | $3,650 | ||
27Policy Studies JournalWiley · United States | 6.10Q1 | 3.56 0.37 down from 2016 | 134 | 18% | $4,050 | ||
28European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.01Q1 | 3.03 0.51 up from 2016 | 87 | 41% | $3,650 | ||
29Transforming Government People Process and PolicyEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 5.96Q1 | 2.93 0.42 up from 2016 | 88 | 21% | — | ||
30Police QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 5.93Q1 | 3.08 0.82 up from 2016 | 61 | 16% | $3,650 | ||
31GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom | 5.92Q1 | 2.46 0.18 down from 2016 | 149 | 27% | $3,730 | ||
32Territory Politics GovernanceTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 3.25 1.55 up from 2016 | 86 | 25% | — | ||
33The Chinese Journal of International PoliticsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 5.75Q1 | 1.75 0.69 down from 2016 | 51 | 38% | $3,981 | ||
34DemocratizationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.71Q1 | 2.53 0.28 up from 2016 | 181 | 19% | — | ||
35Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.65Q1 | 2.23 0.14 up from 2016 | 64 | 24% | $4,030 | ||
36Security StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.51Q1 | 2.31 0.65 up from 2016 | 89 | 10% | — | ||
37Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.47Q1 | 2.30 0.12 up from 2016 | 115 | 12% | $2,990 | ||
38The China QuarterlyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 5.31Q1 | 2.28 0.19 up from 2016 | 161 | 25% | $3,550 | ||
39Journal of Elections Public Opinion and PartiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.31Q1 | 1.31 0.57 down from 2016 | 86 | 61% | — | ||
40Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.29Q1 | 2.55 0.04 down from 2016 | 370 | 40% | $2,290 | ||
41Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.17Q1 | 2.12 0.12 up from 2016 | 180 | 37% | $3,650 | ||
42Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 5.02Q1 | 1.42 0.28 down from 2016 | 154 | 40% | $3,290 | ||
43Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.98Q1 | 1.79 0.35 up from 2016 | 392 | 34% | $2,840 | ||
44Journal of Contemporary ChinaRoutledge · United States | 4.98Q1 | 1.75 0.29 up from 2016 | 187 | 18% | — | ||
45Higher Education QuarterlyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.81Q1 | 2.08 0.11 up from 2016 | 71 | 35% | $2,900 | ||
46Political Science Research and MethodsOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.78Q1 | 1.47 0.37 down from 2016 | 178 | 45% | $3,550 | ||
47East European PoliticsRoutledge · United Kingdom | 4.73Q1 | 1.55 0.02 up from 2016 | 113 | 26% | — | ||
48Policy & InternetWiley · United States | 4.72Q1 | 3.23 0.19 down from 2016 | 76 | 29% | $3,570 | ||
49Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.67Q1 | 3.02 0.23 up from 2016 | 80 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
50European SecurityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.62Q1 | 2.00 0.60 up from 2016 | 99 | 23% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,300
- Education698
- Political Science and International Relations318
- Communication71
- Gender Studies63
- Health53
- Safety Research52
- Public Administration51
- Transportation48
- Linguistics and Language47
- Law46
- Urban Studies45
- Anthropology41
- Library and Information Sciences41
- Demography40
- Geography, Planning and Development28
- Cultural Studies9
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2017. Corpus-wide, 77.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
87 additional Political Science and International Relations journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2014–2016, 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: 2017. Publication window: 2014–2016. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 318
- Window papers (baseline)
- 245,820 +16.9% from indicator year 2014
- Median OJR
- 1.87 +10.8% from indicator year 2014
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2014–2016 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 | 185 | 187 | 198 | 211 | 222 | 236 | 243 | 248 | 255 | 260 | 270 | 279 | 287 | 287 | 294 | 301 | 308 | 318 | 321 | 326 | 332 | 333 | 339 | 334 | 334 | 322 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 87,090 | 92,551 | 99,427 | 106,761 | 113,825 | 122,173 | 130,947 | 139,764 | 148,869 | 159,463 | 170,900 | 180,910 | 191,534 | 201,200 | 210,369 | 223,416 | 235,982 | 245,820 | 247,938 | 251,957 | 262,579 | 278,323 | 289,523 | 291,064 | 289,519 | 294,162 | |
| Median OJR | 0.81 | 0.99 | 0.90 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.31 | 1.27 | 1.42 | 1.603 | 1.68 | 1.77 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 1.78 | 1.69 | 1.83 | 1.92 | 1.87 | 1.723 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.71 | 1.602 | 1.63 | 1.52 | 1.718 |
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.