OpenJournalRank

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

Music journal rankings 2018

29 ranked journals · Subfield in Arts and Humanities

Music has 29 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.57, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.03 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.40. The top three are Arts Education Policy Review, Music Education Research, and Journal of Research in Music Education.

Ranks and citation indicators: 2018. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.

Ranked journals

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.

29
6% of Arts and Humanities
Median OJR

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.

0.57+0.03 vs 2017
This subfieldAll 0.83World 1.00
Open-access journals

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.

17%
All fields: 33%
Median listed APC

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.

$3,550
Median positive listed APC: $3,550 among 7 journals. 22 have no known price. All fields: $3,330.

Subfields of Arts and Humanities (13)

29 ranked journals

Filters

Quartile

Quartiles split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. Q1 is the top quarter and Q4 the bottom quarter.

They are computed within the list on screen, so a journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 in the global ranking.

Access
APC (list price)
Music ranking, 2018

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.

OJR

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
1Arts Education Policy ReviewTaylor & Francis · United States
2.71Q10.82 0.01 down from 2017928%—
2Music Education ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom
2.58Q10.88 0.10 down from 20179119%—
3Journal of Research in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United States
2.49Q11.28 0.21 up from 20179321%$3,650
4Research Studies in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · Australia
2.37Q11.32 0.06 up from 20174324%$3,650
5International Journal of Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
2.00Q10.48 0.23 down from 201712029%$3,650
6Journal of Music Teacher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States
1.93Q10.59 0.11 up from 20175728%$3,400
7Philosophy of Music Education ReviewIndiana University Press · United States
1.57Q10.52 0.21 up from 2017480%—
8British Journal of Music EducationCambridge University Press · United Kingdom
1.40Q10.45 0.06 down from 20178131%$3,550
9Action Criticism and Theory for Music EducationOAMayDay Group · United States
1.37Q20.61 0.20 up from 201731100%—
10Metal Music StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom
1.15Q20.33 0.08 up from 20176621%—
11International Journal of Community MusicIntellect · United Kingdom
0.97Q20.42 0.09 down from 2017648%—
12Update Applications of Research in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United States
0.79Q20.48 0.13 down from 20175121%$3,400
13Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music EducationUniversity of Illinois Press · United States
0.63Q20.44 0.09 up from 2017620%—
14DancecultOAGriffith University · United States
0.63Q20.41 0.14 up from 201756100%—
15Journal of Mathematics and MusicTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom
0.57Q21.04 0.63 up from 20173320%—
0.45Q30.31 0.14 down from 2017570%—
17Journal of Music Technology and EducationIntellect · United Kingdom
0.42Q30.47 0.33 up from 20175133%—
18Empirical Musicology ReviewOAThe Ohio State University Libraries · United States
0.41Q30.73 0.04 down from 201790100%—
19Fontes artis musicaeUnited States
0.36Q30.10 0.06 up from 20171080%—
20The American Journal of SemioticsPhilosophy Documentation Center · United States
0.36Q30.17 0.03 up from 2017470%—
21Music Reference Services QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United States
0.36Q30.21 0.07 up from 2017643%—
22Music Theory OnlineOASociety for Music Theory · United States
0.32Q30.31no change133100%—
23Voice and Speech ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom
0.22Q40.67 0.56 up from 2017729%—
0.22Q40.17 0.14 up from 201739100%—
25Journal of Music TheoryDuke University · United States
0.22Q40.27 0.24 down from 2017619%—
26Journal of World Popular MusicEquinox Publishing · United Kingdom
0.16Q40.05 0.01 down from 20171047%—
27Yearbook for Traditional MusicCambridge University Press · United States
0.15Q40.09 0.05 down from 20171208%$3,450
28Perspectives of New MusicPerspectives of New Music · United States
0.14Q40.17 0.08 up from 2017800%—
29Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom
0.06Q40.00no change326%—

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.

7 additional Music 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.

Rising journals

At a glance

Indicator year: 2018. Publication window: 2015–2017. How these summaries are calculated

Ranked journals
29
Window papers (baseline)
15,694 +1.4% from indicator year 2015
Median OJR
0.568 -12.8% from indicator year 2015
Rising journals (2025)
0

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.

Category by indicator year
MeasureYear series20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Ranked journals1316151515151719202021222425252526282931323233333130
Window papers (baseline)7,3407,3267,7188,1468,6799,44410,19211,15911,83612,67613,35913,89414,27114,48514,78415,47316,14216,18115,69415,44015,54815,95316,50517,74518,17018,914
Median OJR0.6160.270.730.440.580.5730.34940.390.34930.500.56140.760.600.680.6240.650.700.540.5680.6260.610.5660.490.56090.420.629

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.