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
Public Administration journal rankings 2018
50 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Public Administration has 50 ranked journals in 2018. The median OJR fell 0.05 on 2017 to 1.19, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.32. The top three are Public Administration, Public Management Review, and Public Administration Review.
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)
50 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Public AdministrationWiley · United Kingdom | 4.64Q1 | 2.80 0.77 down from 2017 | 237 | 53% | $3,950 | ||
2Public Management ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.63Q1 | 4.14 1.04 up from 2017 | 210 | 49% | — | ||
3Public Administration ReviewWiley · United States | 4.07Q1 | 2.31 1.12 down from 2017 | 438 | 25% | $4,250 | ||
4Journal of Public Administration Research and TheoryOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.36Q1 | 2.58 0.04 up from 2017 | 177 | 33% | $4,029 | ||
5Financial Accountability and ManagementWiley · United Kingdom | 3.27Q1 | 2.35 0.22 down from 2017 | 69 | 35% | $2,900 | ||
6British Journal of Industrial RelationsWiley · United Kingdom | 3.26Q1 | 2.07 0.04 down from 2017 | 85 | 34% | $3,860 | ||
7International Review of Administrative SciencesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.16Q1 | 1.47 0.54 down from 2017 | 200 | 36% | $3,650 | ||
8International Journal of Public Sector ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 3.11Q1 | 2.25 0.23 down from 2017 | 127 | 16% | — | ||
9European Journal of Industrial RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.03Q1 | 2.02 0.14 down from 2017 | 73 | 41% | $3,650 | ||
10The American Review of Public AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United States | 2.90Q1 | 2.31 0.37 up from 2017 | 126 | 13% | $3,900 | ||
11Public Policy and AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.44Q1 | 1.52 0.18 down from 2017 | 87 | 32% | $3,650 | ||
12International Public Management JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.39Q1 | 2.02 0.26 down from 2017 | 98 | 45% | — | ||
13Public Performance & Management ReviewTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.32Q1 | 1.92 0.12 down from 2017 | 109 | 26% | — | ||
14Administration & SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.29Q2 | 2.13 0.82 up from 2017 | 135 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
15Journal of Industrial RelationsSAGE Publishing · Australia | 2.10Q2 | 1.97 0.61 up from 2017 | 130 | 32% | $3,650 | ||
16Social WorkOxford University Press · United States | 1.90Q2 | 1.40 0.03 up from 2017 | 180 | 11% | — | ||
17Public Money & ManagementTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.87Q2 | 1.55 0.33 up from 2017 | 252 | 34% | — | ||
18Comparative labor law & policy journalCambridge University Press · United States | 1.82Q2 | 1.59 1.01 up from 2017 | 43 | 0% | — | ||
19Industrial Relations A Journal of Economy and SocietyWiley · United States | 1.72Q2 | 1.25 0.40 up from 2017 | 98 | 32% | $3,470 | ||
20The British Journal of Social WorkOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.39Q2 | 1.16 0.35 down from 2017 | 469 | 30% | $4,492 | ||
21Journal of Social Work EducationTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.34Q2 | 1.31 0.01 up from 2017 | 209 | 15% | — | ||
22Industrial Relations JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 1.29Q2 | 1.17 0.09 down from 2017 | 89 | 29% | $2,900 | ||
23Economic and Industrial DemocracySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.26Q2 | 1.01 0.12 down from 2017 | 108 | 53% | $3,650 | ||
24Journal of Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.23Q2 | 1.23 0.31 up from 2017 | 114 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
25Journal of Teaching in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.20Q2 | 0.70 0.25 down from 2017 | 113 | 5% | — | ||
26Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.19Q3 | 1.29 0.38 up from 2017 | 88 | 18% | — | ||
27Qualitative Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.15Q3 | 0.94no change | 189 | 39% | $3,650 | ||
28Social Work ResearchOxford University Press · United States | 1.14Q3 | 1.21 0.08 up from 2017 | 81 | 14% | — | ||
29European Journal of Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.05Q3 | 1.15 0.10 up from 2017 | 240 | 33% | — | ||
30Australian Social WorkTaylor & Francis · Australia | 1.02Q3 | 1.16 0.36 up from 2017 | 157 | 27% | — | ||
31Canadian Public AdministrationWiley · United Kingdom | 0.99Q3 | 1.18 0.21 up from 2017 | 99 | 12% | $2,900 | ||
32Labor Studies JournalSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.99Q3 | 0.77 0.33 up from 2017 | 69 | 15% | $3,400 | ||
33Advances in Social WorkOAIndiana University School of Social Work · United States | 0.98Q3 | 1.01 0.07 down from 2017 | 117 | 100% | — | ||
34Social Work EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.96Q3 | 0.88 0.13 up from 2017 | 325 | 23% | — | ||
35Journal of Progressive Human ServicesTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.87Q3 | 0.72 0.28 down from 2017 | 51 | 5% | — | ||
36International Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.81Q3 | 0.66 0.07 down from 2017 | 314 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
37Journal of Social Work PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.80Q3 | 0.84 0.01 down from 2017 | 135 | 32% | — | ||
38China Journal of Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.77Q3 | 0.56 0.07 down from 2017 | 62 | 19% | — | ||
39Asia Pacific Journal of Public AdministrationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.76Q4 | 0.76 0.06 down from 2017 | 67 | 4% | — | ||
40PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.73Q4 | 0.64 0.03 up from 2017 | 85 | 45% | — | ||
41Teaching Public AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.52Q4 | 0.81 0.30 up from 2017 | 51 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
42Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting & Financial ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 0.49Q4 | 0.57 0.32 up from 2017 | 54 | 8% | — | ||
43Smith College Studies in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.44Q4 | 0.52 0.37 up from 2017 | 88 | 32% | — | ||
44The Journal of Practice Teaching in Health and Social WorkUnited Kingdom | 0.38Q4 | 0.47 0.10 up from 2017 | 32 | 38% | — | ||
45Journal of Baccalaureate Social WorkUnited States | 0.31Q4 | 0.21 0.01 down from 2017 | 56 | 0% | — | ||
46Chinese Public Administration ReviewOAUnited States | 0.30Q4 | 0.28 0.20 up from 2017 | 76 | 100% | $3,650 | ||
47The Journal of Sociology & Social WelfareWestern Michigan University · United States | 0.25Q4 | 0.16 0.11 down from 2017 | 248 | 76% | — | ||
48Social Work With GroupsTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.21Q4 | 0.34no change | 170 | 15% | — | ||
49Contemporary Rural Social Work JournalUnited States | 0.13Q4 | 0.17 0.08 up from 2017 | 70 | 100% | — | ||
| 0.03Q4 | 0.02 0.01 down from 2017 | 73 | — | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Public Administration 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.
4 additional Public Administration 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
- 50
- Window papers (baseline)
- 9,866 +1.5% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 1.192 -19.7% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 6
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 | 39 | 39 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 46 | 45 | 46 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 51 | 49 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 5,291 | 5,454 | 5,737 | 6,096 | 6,309 | 6,459 | 7,069 | 7,550 | 8,059 | 8,152 | 8,390 | 8,538 | 8,687 | 9,064 | 9,283 | 9,721 | 9,886 | 10,257 | 9,866 | 9,630 | 9,356 | 9,519 | 9,597 | 9,348 | 9,065 | 8,961 | |
| Median OJR | 1.23 | 1.03 | 0.94 | 0.79 | 0.80 | 0.87 | 1.04 | 0.93 | 1.20 | 1.07 | 1.3317 | 1.51 | 1.41 | 1.21 | 1.239 | 1.48 | 1.3324 | 1.243 | 1.192 | 1.46 | 1.36 | 1.34 | 1.22 | 1.18 | 1.189 | 1.37 |
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.