Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Global ranking · 2018
Journal rankings 2018
20,896 ranked journals in 4 domains, 26 fields and 252 subfields
This release ranks 20,896 journals for 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.83, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.02 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.49. The top three are CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, and Journal of Economic Growth. Small journals can score very high; only journals with at least 30 citable documents are ranked.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2018. 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 2015–2017, the window the 2018 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.
Browse by subject
4 domains · 26 fields · 252 subfields20,896 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 2017. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2015–2017, the window the 2018 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2015–2017 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 2009 to 2018. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CA A Cancer Journal for CliniciansOAWiley · United States | 87.61Q1 | 240.26 21.50 down from 2017 | 83 | 100% | $4,330 | ||
2MMWR Surveillance SummariesOACenters for Disease Control and Prevention · United States | 26.05Q1 | 47.39 9.24 down from 2017 | 43 | 100% | — | ||
3Journal of Economic GrowthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 21.02Q1 | 7.44 5.64 down from 2017 | 36 | 22% | $4,290 | ||
4Journal of Statistical SoftwareOAFoundation for Open Access Statistics · United States | 19.97Q1 | 16.16 9.32 down from 2017 | 300 | 100% | — | ||
5Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 19.78Q1 | 42.15 4.00 up from 2017 | 122 | 89% | — | ||
6The Quarterly Journal of EconomicsOxford University Press · United States | 19.35Q1 | 15.89 3.70 up from 2017 | 155 | 47% | $7,619 | ||
7The Journal of Economic PerspectivesOAAmerican Economic Association · United States | 17.41Q1 | 11.97 2.58 up from 2017 | 146 | 100% | — | ||
8IEEE Communications Surveys & TutorialsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 16.57Q1 | 26.03 1.48 down from 2017 | 341 | 44% | $2,645 | ||
9Academy of Management AnnalsRoutledge · United States | 16.12Q1 | 16.66 5.37 up from 2017 | 102 | 25% | — | ||
10New England Journal of MedicineMassachusetts Medical Society · United States | 15.99Q1 | 28.48 6.87 down from 2017 | 2,913 | 34% | — | ||
11Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language EducationJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 15.86Q1 | 3.48 2.32 up from 2017 | 45 | 10% | — | ||
12The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 15.77Q1 | 8.24 2.12 down from 2017 | 96 | 21% | $4,120 | ||
13American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 15.64Q1 | 6.78 2.18 up from 2017 | 159 | 26% | $4,100 | ||
14Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 15.26Q1 | 5.87 2.72 up from 2017 | 220 | 6% | — | ||
15Annual Review of Applied LinguisticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 14.64Q1 | 5.09 2.94 down from 2017 | 49 | 43% | $3,550 | ||
16International Journal of Research & Method in EducationRoutledge · United Kingdom | 14.51Q1 | 1.45 7.81 down from 2017 | 99 | 27% | — | ||
17American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.97Q1 | 9.40 1.33 up from 2017 | 146 | 36% | $3,900 | ||
18Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 13.01Q1 | 6.28 3.10 up from 2017 | 204 | 34% | $3,900 | ||
19Progress in Energy and Combustion ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 12.65Q1 | 21.07 2.96 up from 2017 | 91 | 41% | $6,990 | ||
20Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 12.48Q1 | 30.98 9.25 up from 2017 | 156 | 43% | $6,240 | ||
21Integrative Medicine InternationalOAKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 12.41Q1 | 0.58 25.32 down from 2017 | 60 | 100% | — | ||
22Progress in Materials ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 11.97Q1 | 26.00 2.54 down from 2017 | 136 | 38% | $6,040 | ||
23IMF staff discussion noteInternational Monetary Fund | 11.79Q1 | 8.93 0.39 up from 2017 | 39 | 88% | — | ||
24Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 11.58Q1 | 5.83 1.30 down from 2017 | 157 | 4% | $2,500 | ||
25Journal of MarketingSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 11.52Q1 | 10.87 0.27 up from 2017 | 139 | 26% | $5,400 | ||
26Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 11.30Q1 | 4.82 1.82 up from 2017 | 126 | 100% | — | ||
27Educational Evaluation and Policy AnalysisSAGE Publishing · United States | 11.29Q1 | 5.77 1.47 up from 2017 | 90 | 19% | $2,500 | ||
28American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 11.26Q1 | 5.20 0.93 up from 2017 | 196 | 33% | $3,550 | ||
29Clinical Microbiology ReviewsAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 11.21Q1 | 19.82 4.81 down from 2017 | 114 | 95% | — | ||
30Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 10.98Q1 | 5.38 0.96 up from 2017 | 310 | 57% | — | ||
31Sociology of EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 10.97Q1 | 4.05 0.19 up from 2017 | 62 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
32Transactions of the Association for Computational LinguisticsOAAssociation for Computational Linguistics | 10.69Q1 | 18.79 9.37 up from 2017 | 118 | 100% | — | ||
33The LancetElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.60Q1 | 21.22 3.12 up from 2017 | 3,207 | 47% | $7,890 | ||
34Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 10.39Q1 | 6.98 0.10 up from 2017 | 203 | 40% | $4,360 | ||
35Communications of the ACMAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 10.39Q1 | 18.44 15.64 up from 2017 | 840 | 28% | — | ||
36Psychological InquiryTaylor & Francis · United States | 10.33Q1 | 3.90 9.29 down from 2017 | 40 | 32% | — | ||
37Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States | 10.12Q1 | 17.72 1.42 up from 2017 | 90 | 77% | $3,880 | ||
38Materials Science and Engineering R ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.08Q1 | 26.83 3.27 up from 2017 | 36 | 30% | $6,150 | ||
39Harvard Educational ReviewHarvard University Press · United States | 10.07Q1 | 4.97 1.39 up from 2017 | 113 | 22% | — | ||
40European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 10.02Q1 | 4.15 0.24 up from 2017 | 171 | 56% | $3,550 | ||
41American Economic Journal Applied EconomicsAmerican Economic Association · United States | 10.00Q1 | 6.44 2.01 down from 2017 | 114 | 61% | — | ||
42Language Culture and CurriculumRoutledge · United Kingdom | 9.93Q1 | 1.83 0.97 down from 2017 | 67 | 30% | — | ||
43Journal of International Business StudiesPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 9.88Q1 | 8.75 1.58 up from 2017 | 178 | 48% | $4,790 | ||
44IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE Computer Society · United States | 9.88Q1 | 17.40 3.46 up from 2017 | 799 | 38% | $2,645 | ||
45CellCell Press · United States | 9.81Q1 | 28.47 4.16 up from 2017 | 1,917 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
46International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 9.80Q1 | 4.77 0.19 up from 2017 | 77 | 28% | — | ||
47Entrepreneurship Theory and PracticeSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.71Q1 | 7.78 1.60 up from 2017 | 134 | 40% | $3,900 | ||
48Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.70Q1 | 13.88 1.30 up from 2017 | 46 | 19% | $3,900 | ||
49American Educational Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 9.69Q1 | 5.12 0.69 up from 2017 | 168 | 12% | $2,500 | ||
50Review of Educational ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.62Q1 | 14.58 2.86 up from 2017 | 84 | 27% | $2,500 |
All 26 fields, compared. Choose a field to open its ranking.
- MedicineHealth Sciences4,350
- Social SciencesSocial Sciences2,994
- EngineeringPhysical Sciences2,290
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyLife Sciences1,365
- Agricultural and Biological SciencesLife Sciences1,133
- Computer SciencePhysical Sciences1,089
- PsychologySocial Sciences1,000
- Environmental SciencePhysical Sciences910
- Economics, Econometrics and FinanceSocial Sciences837
- Business, Management and AccountingSocial Sciences732
- MathematicsPhysical Sciences588
- Health ProfessionsHealth Sciences566
- Arts and HumanitiesSocial Sciences497
- Materials SciencePhysical Sciences458
- Earth and Planetary SciencesPhysical Sciences407
- Physics and AstronomyPhysical Sciences348
- NeuroscienceLife Sciences321
- ChemistryPhysical Sciences231
- Decision SciencesSocial Sciences191
- DentistryHealth Sciences190
- Immunology and MicrobiologyLife Sciences135
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and PharmaceuticsLife Sciences73
- VeterinaryHealth Sciences69
- NursingHealth Sciences64
- EnergyPhysical Sciences45
- Chemical EngineeringPhysical Sciences13
Journals
Citations made in 2018. Corpus-wide, 81.5% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
6,138 additional journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2015–2017, 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: 2018. Publication window: 2015–2017. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 20,896
- Window papers (baseline)
- 13,523,013 +1.4% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.83 -6.3% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 1,582
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2015–2017 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.