Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2018
Law journal rankings 2018
47 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Law has 47 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.95, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.04 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.55. The top three are Transnational Environmental Law, Journal of Law and Courts, and Journal of Human Rights and the Environment.
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.
Subfields of Social Sciences (22)
47 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Transnational Environmental LawCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 5.88Q1 | 3.30 2.15 up from 2017 | 85 | 50% | $3,550 | ||
2Journal of Law and CourtsUniversity of Chicago Press | 5.54Q1 | 1.33 0.07 up from 2017 | 46 | 14% | $3,550 | ||
3Journal of Human Rights and the EnvironmentEdward Elgar Publishing | 3.62Q1 | 1.81 0.37 up from 2017 | 30 | 71% | — | ||
4Review of European Comparative & International Environmental LawWiley · United Kingdom | 3.17Q1 | 3.62 1.17 up from 2017 | 83 | 31% | $3,750 | ||
5Law & Society ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 2.87Q1 | 1.67 0.03 down from 2017 | 124 | 15% | $3,550 | ||
6Modern Law ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.30Q1 | 0.85 0.02 up from 2017 | 205 | 28% | $3,400 | ||
7Journal of Political EcologyOAUniversity of Arizona · United States | 2.14Q1 | 1.78 0.14 down from 2017 | 131 | 100% | — | ||
8Media IndustriesOAMichigan Publishing · United States | 2.10Q1 | 1.11 0.54 up from 2017 | 42 | 100% | — | ||
9Journal of Law and SocietyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.09Q1 | 0.67 0.08 up from 2017 | 126 | 36% | $3,170 | ||
10Journal of Consumer PolicySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.84Q1 | 2.13 1.09 up from 2017 | 75 | 35% | $3,390 | ||
11Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly CommunicationOAPacific University Library · United States | 1.76Q1 | 1.19 0.22 down from 2017 | 62 | 100% | — | ||
12Legal StudiesCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.55Q1 | 0.94 0.46 up from 2017 | 100 | 69% | $3,550 | ||
13International Journal of Discrimination and the LawSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.39Q2 | 0.71 0.51 up from 2017 | 30 | 44% | $3,650 | ||
14International Journal of Legal DiscourseDe Gruyter · Germany | 1.33Q2 | 0.39 0.18 up from 2017 | 36 | 14% | $2,712 | ||
15The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial LawTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.31Q2 | 0.68 0.11 up from 2017 | 70 | 32% | — | ||
16International Journal of Law in the Built EnvironmentEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.24Q2 | 0.57 0.03 down from 2017 | 47 | — | — | ||
17Law and CritiqueSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.21Q2 | 0.72 0.21 up from 2017 | 64 | 56% | $3,090 | ||
18The Law TeacherTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.18Q2 | 0.42 0.17 up from 2017 | 122 | 28% | — | ||
19Open Library of HumanitiesOAOpen Library of Humanities · United Kingdom | 1.18Q2 | 0.80 0.14 up from 2017 | 61 | 100% | — | ||
20Feminist Legal StudiesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.17Q2 | 0.88 0.41 up from 2017 | 80 | 40% | $2,190 | ||
21International Journal of the Legal ProfessionTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.14Q2 | 0.60 0.28 up from 2017 | 61 | 32% | — | ||
22International Journal of Law in ContextCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.04Q2 | 0.57 0.19 up from 2017 | 135 | 72% | $3,550 | ||
23Justice System JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.04Q2 | 0.36 0.03 down from 2017 | 82 | 29% | — | ||
24Journal of Social Welfare and Family LawTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.95Q2 | 0.57 0.07 down from 2017 | 117 | 39% | — | ||
25The International Journal of Evidence & ProofSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.92Q3 | 0.64 0.31 up from 2017 | 85 | 41% | $3,650 | ||
26Indiana Journal of Global Legal StudiesIndiana University Press · United States | 0.85Q3 | 0.68 0.40 up from 2017 | 86 | 78% | — | ||
27Law Culture and the HumanitiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.81Q3 | 0.16 0.04 up from 2017 | 128 | 41% | $3,650 | ||
28QUT Law ReviewOAQueensland University of Technology · Australia | 0.72Q3 | 0.80 0.47 up from 2017 | 52 | 100% | — | ||
29Australian Feminist Law JournalRoutledge · Australia | 0.69Q3 | 0.44 0.01 down from 2017 | 51 | 38% | — | ||
30Revista de Estudos Empíricos em DireitoOARede de Pesquisa Empírica em Direito · Brazil | 0.68Q3 | 0.30 0.18 up from 2017 | 85 | 100% | — | ||
31Zeitschrift für RechtssoziologieDe Gruyter · Germany | 0.67Q3 | 0.29 0.20 down from 2017 | 65 | 7% | $0 listed | ||
32Liverpool Law ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.56Q3 | 0.32 0.15 up from 2017 | 44 | 54% | $3,090 | ||
33Journal of Electronic PublishingOAMichigan Publishing · United States | 0.51Q3 | 0.34 0.10 up from 2017 | 93 | 100% | — | ||
34Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et SociétéOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.51Q3 | 0.31 0.03 up from 2017 | 92 | 36% | $3,550 | ||
35Studies in the MaternalOAOpen Library of Humanities · United Kingdom | 0.49Q3 | 0.17 0.17 down from 2017 | 40 | 100% | — | ||
36Zygon®OAWiley · United States | 0.48Q3 | 0.70 0.17 up from 2017 | 215 | 90% | $2,630 | ||
37International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridiqueSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.41Q4 | 0.26 0.16 down from 2017 | 131 | 26% | $3,090 | ||
38Global JuristDe Gruyter · United States | 0.39Q4 | 0.34 0.22 up from 2017 | 55 | 27% | $2,712 | ||
39Datenschutz und Datensicherheit - DuDSpringer Science+Business Media | 0.34Q4 | 0.20 0.01 up from 2017 | 527 | 19% | $3,190 | ||
40IDP Revista de Internet Derecho y PolíticaOAOpen University of Catalonia · Spain | 0.29Q4 | 0.20 0.09 up from 2017 | 82 | 100% | — | ||
41Legal Information ManagementCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.20Q4 | 0.27 0.09 up from 2017 | 147 | 33% | $3,550 | ||
42REI - REVISTA ESTUDOS INSTITUCIONAISOAFederal University of Rio de Janeiro · Brazil | 0.15Q4 | 0.05 0.01 up from 2017 | 63 | 100% | — | ||
43Theoretical Roman Archaeology JournalOATheoretical Roman Archaeology Conference · United Kingdom | 0.11Q4 | 0.04no change | 35 | 100% | — | ||
44Journal of law and policyUnited States | 0.08Q4 | 0.03 0.03 up from 2017 | 37 | 0% | — | ||
45Amicus CuriaeOAUnited Kingdom | 0.05Q4 | 0.03 0.05 down from 2017 | 55 | — | — | ||
46Environmental Policy and LawIOS Press · Netherlands | 0.04Q4 | 0.03 0.08 down from 2017 | 84 | 8% | $0 listed | ||
47Derecho Animal Forum of Animal Law StudiesOAUniversitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Facultat de Dret · Spain | 0.02Q4 | 0.03 0.02 up from 2017 | 119 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Law highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,315
- Education714
- Political Science and International Relations321
- Communication74
- Gender Studies61
- Health52
- Safety Research51
- Public Administration50
- Urban Studies49
- Law47
- Linguistics and Language47
- Transportation47
- Library and Information Sciences42
- Demography40
- Anthropology38
- Geography, Planning and Development29
- Cultural Studies9
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
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.
17 additional Law 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
- 47
- Window papers (baseline)
- 93,598 +24.4% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.95 +9.8% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 3
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 | 26 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 36 | 39 | 37 | 40 | 45 | 42 | 46 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 47 | 45 | 46 | 46 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 20,760 | 23,088 | 25,138 | 27,078 | 29,298 | 32,993 | 37,542 | 42,263 | 45,900 | 49,233 | 52,379 | 56,365 | 60,266 | 63,498 | 67,376 | 75,231 | 83,225 | 90,875 | 93,598 | 96,498 | 99,517 | 107,426 | 115,990 | 118,267 | 121,355 | 126,586 | |
| Median OJR | 0.526 | 0.55 | 0.483 | 0.478 | 0.482 | 0.41 | 0.535 | 0.43 | 0.530 | 0.70 | 0.65 | 0.52 | 0.88 | 0.86 | 0.74 | 0.87 | 0.8856 | 0.91 | 0.95 | 0.99 | 0.901 | 0.85 | 0.896 | 0.8862 | 0.83 | 0.81 |
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.