Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2018
Psychology journal rankings 2018
1,000 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Psychology has 1,000 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.98, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.02 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.66. The top three are Perspectives on Psychological Science, Psychological Bulletin, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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 in Psychology (7)
Up to Social Sciences1,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Perspectives on Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.76Q1 | 12.05 0.28 up from 2017 | 260 | 22% | $3,900 | ||
2Psychological BulletinAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 7.50Q1 | 21.07 4.41 up from 2017 | 130 | 31% | — | ||
3Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 7.05Q1 | 8.23 0.27 down from 2017 | 349 | 23% | — | ||
4Psychological MethodsAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.58Q1 | 7.96 0.98 down from 2017 | 137 | 40% | — | ||
5World PsychiatryWiley · Italy | 6.22Q1 | 10.89 2.24 up from 2017 | 289 | 97% | — | ||
6JAMA PsychiatryAmerican Medical Association · United States | 5.90Q1 | 8.97 0.81 down from 2017 | 802 | 64% | — | ||
7Journal of Behavioral AddictionsOAAkadémiai Kiadó · Hungary | 5.39Q1 | 6.48 1.82 up from 2017 | 208 | 100% | $916 | ||
8Journal of the Learning SciencesRoutledge · United States | 4.82Q1 | 4.61 0.92 up from 2017 | 63 | 25% | — | ||
9Child Development PerspectivesWiley · United Kingdom | 4.40Q1 | 5.50 0.69 up from 2017 | 153 | 47% | $3,700 | ||
10American PsychologistAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.39Q1 | 3.63 0.75 down from 2017 | 419 | 27% | — | ||
11Child DevelopmentWiley · United Kingdom | 4.37Q1 | 4.86 0.30 up from 2017 | 629 | 50% | $4,320 | ||
12Journal of Computer Assisted LearningWiley · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 4.63 1.58 up from 2017 | 126 | 25% | $4,150 | ||
13Human DevelopmentKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 4.28Q1 | 1.25 4.32 down from 2017 | 95 | 40% | — | ||
14Journal of Abnormal PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.23Q1 | 7.72 2.00 up from 2017 | 285 | 43% | — | ||
15Developmental ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 4.22Q1 | 8.00 1.77 up from 2017 | 61 | 38% | $4,330 | ||
16Journal of Counseling PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.13Q1 | 5.58 0.20 up from 2017 | 190 | 15% | — | ||
17Journal of Child Psychology and PsychiatryWiley · United Kingdom | 4.11Q1 | 6.97 0.66 down from 2017 | 366 | 60% | $4,530 | ||
18American Journal of PsychiatryAmerican Psychiatric Association · United States | 4.03Q1 | 8.04 0.28 up from 2017 | 648 | 68% | — | ||
19Educational Psychology ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 4.01Q1 | 6.07 0.59 up from 2017 | 127 | 24% | $4,790 | ||
20Journal of Consulting and Clinical PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.84Q1 | 6.17 0.38 down from 2017 | 293 | 51% | — | ||
21Contemporary Educational PsychologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.79Q1 | 3.98 0.02 up from 2017 | 165 | 35% | $4,720 | ||
22The Lancet Public HealthOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.79Q1 | 6.13 2.21 up from 2017 | 142 | 100% | $6,680 | ||
23Developmental PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.69Q1 | 4.49 0.25 up from 2017 | 566 | 40% | — | ||
24Language LearningWiley · United States | 3.56Q1 | 3.81 0.15 up from 2017 | 161 | 51% | $3,760 | ||
25Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological SciencesRoyal Society · United Kingdom | 3.54Q1 | 7.27 0.03 up from 2017 | 1,182 | 97% | — | ||
26Belgian Journal of LinguisticsJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 3.51Q1 | 0.80 0.07 up from 2017 | 35 | 14% | — | ||
27Instructional ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.50Q1 | 2.26 1.08 down from 2017 | 102 | 33% | $3,290 | ||
28Behaviour Research and TherapyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.47Q1 | 5.71 0.13 up from 2017 | 404 | 50% | $3,580 | ||
29Language and Linguistics CompassWiley · United Kingdom | 3.46Q1 | 3.30 1.46 up from 2017 | 99 | 20% | $2,900 | ||
30Current Psychiatry ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.45Q1 | 6.39 0.04 down from 2017 | 320 | 24% | $4,990 | ||
31Personality Disorders Theory Research and TreatmentAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 3.43Q1 | 4.27 0.49 up from 2017 | 164 | 29% | — | ||
32Reading Research QuarterlyWiley · United States | 3.43Q1 | 3.20 0.08 down from 2017 | 84 | 41% | $3,530 | ||
33Dialogues in Clinical NeuroscienceOALaboratoires Servier · United Kingdom | 3.39Q1 | 6.39 0.55 up from 2017 | 128 | 100% | — | ||
34European Journal of PersonalitySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.38Q1 | 4.52 0.18 down from 2017 | 132 | 45% | $3,900 | ||
35Child MaltreatmentSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.30Q1 | 3.70 1.25 up from 2017 | 127 | 48% | $3,900 | ||
36Human Resource Development ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.26Q1 | 4.03 0.65 up from 2017 | 59 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
37IEEE Transactions on Affective ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 3.25Q1 | 4.68 0.97 down from 2017 | 223 | 32% | $2,645 | ||
38Body ImageElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.21Q1 | 4.66 0.05 down from 2017 | 252 | 38% | $4,250 | ||
39JMIR Mental HealthOAJMIR Publications · Canada | 3.20Q1 | 7.32 0.57 up from 2017 | 135 | 100% | $2,750 | ||
40Organizational Behavior and Human Decision ProcessesElsevier BV · United States | 3.19Q1 | 4.44 0.90 up from 2017 | 151 | 25% | $3,530 | ||
41Journal of Adolescent HealthElsevier BV · United States | 3.11Q1 | 4.32no change | 830 | 33% | $3,670 | ||
42JMIR Serious GamesOAJMIR Publications · Canada | 3.07Q1 | 5.50 0.24 up from 2017 | 55 | 100% | $2,500 | ||
43Social Psychology of EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.07Q1 | 2.66 0.44 up from 2017 | 143 | 27% | $3,290 | ||
44Review of General PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 3.07Q1 | 4.67 1.25 up from 2017 | 109 | 21% | $3,900 | ||
45The Lancet PsychiatryElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.06Q1 | 5.89 1.10 up from 2017 | 946 | 48% | $7,280 | ||
46Journal of PersonalityWiley · United States | 3.03Q1 | 4.08 0.68 up from 2017 | 175 | 40% | $3,780 | ||
47Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion DysregulationOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 3.02Q1 | 4.35 0.42 up from 2017 | 55 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
48Evolution and Human BehaviorElsevier BV · United States | 2.99Q1 | 4.29 0.39 up from 2017 | 207 | 38% | $4,330 | ||
49Child Abuse & NeglectElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.97Q1 | 3.45 0.61 down from 2017 | 696 | 38% | $4,050 | ||
50Journal of Youth and AdolescenceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.90Q1 | 3.50 0.59 up from 2017 | 535 | 43% | $3,890 |
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.
262 additional Psychology 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
- 1,000
- Window papers (baseline)
- 336,144 +15.9% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.98 -3.2% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 68Comparison-group list (68)
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 | 519 | 548 | 577 | 590 | 609 | 627 | 650 | 677 | 713 | 736 | 759 | 789 | 812 | 836 | 872 | 914 | 953 | 976 | 1,000 | 1,008 | 1,032 | 1,032 | 1,044 | 1,049 | 1,036 | 1,032 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 100,368 | 108,714 | 116,356 | 126,019 | 132,361 | 141,328 | 150,104 | 163,997 | 178,881 | 196,566 | 212,190 | 230,053 | 245,061 | 259,850 | 274,026 | 290,061 | 308,630 | 323,270 | 336,144 | 346,025 | 361,777 | 394,757 | 437,922 | 469,605 | 479,050 | 491,558 | |
| Median OJR | 0.67 | 0.68 | 0.69 | 0.73 | 0.76 | 0.77 | 0.79 | 0.83 | 0.867 | 0.90 | 0.920 | 0.94 | 1.0178 | 1.0183 | 1.017 | 1.01 | 1.003 | 1.001 | 0.98 | 0.93 | 0.95 | 0.85 | 0.872 | 0.869 | 0.915 | 0.9249 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 3.9% | 730 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.819 per 1,000 | 625 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -1.9% | 962 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 55.7% | 1,032 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,390 | 484 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 21.7% | 951 journals |
| Review share | Median: 2.1% | 1,032 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.96 | 1,023 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 36.5% | 1,032 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 45.5% | 1,030 journals |
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.