Journal rankings · indicator year 2019
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2019
Communication journal rankings 2019
74 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Communication has 74 ranked journals in 2019. The median OJR fell 0.20 on 2018 to 1.33, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.54. The top three are Journal of Communication, Political Communication, and Journal of Knowledge Management.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2019. 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 2016–2018, the window the 2019 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)
74 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 2018. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2016–2018, the window the 2019 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2016–2018 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 2010 to 2019. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of CommunicationOxford University Press · United States | 7.21Q1 | 7.99 2.84 up from 2018 | 225 | 20% | $4,235 | ||
2Political CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.64Q1 | 5.17 1.13 up from 2018 | 125 | 43% | — | ||
3Journal of Knowledge ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 6.05Q1 | 7.57 0.28 up from 2018 | 283 | 25% | — | ||
4The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.52Q1 | 4.59 0.94 up from 2018 | 79 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
5Digital JournalismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.17Q1 | 6.96 3.33 up from 2018 | 211 | 32% | — | ||
6Journal of Studies in International EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.09Q1 | 2.78 0.09 down from 2018 | 89 | 38% | $3,650 | ||
7Journal of Global Mobility The Home of Expatriate Management ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 5.04Q1 | 5.13 3.56 up from 2018 | 70 | 32% | — | ||
8Journal of Public Relations ResearchTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.64Q1 | 3.77 0.89 up from 2018 | 46 | 18% | — | ||
9Annals of the International Communication AssociationTaylor & Francis | 3.52Q1 | 4.86 1.69 up from 2018 | 58 | 11% | $3,368 | ||
10Media and CommunicationOACogitatio · Portugal | 3.40Q1 | 2.52 0.05 up from 2018 | 156 | 100% | $1,132 | ||
11Journal of Information Technology & PoliticsRoutledge · United States | 3.38Q1 | 3.63 1.10 up from 2018 | 69 | 28% | — | ||
12European Journal of CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.24Q1 | 3.09 1.29 up from 2018 | 223 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
13Public Relations ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 2.98Q1 | 4.00 1.08 up from 2018 | 287 | 20% | $4,310 | ||
14Journalism StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 2.94Q1 | 2.44 0.07 down from 2018 | 298 | 24% | — | ||
15Discourse & CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.83Q1 | 2.28 0.97 up from 2018 | 88 | 32% | $3,650 | ||
16Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.75Q1 | 2.52 0.46 up from 2018 | 188 | 14% | $3,900 | ||
17International Communication GazetteSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.58Q1 | 2.39 0.88 up from 2018 | 148 | 34% | $3,650 | ||
18Communication TheoryWiley · United States | 2.56Q1 | 1.91 1.00 down from 2018 | 76 | 14% | $4,235 | ||
19Communication Research and PracticeTaylor & Francis · Australia | 2.54Q1 | 1.51 0.64 down from 2018 | 76 | 29% | — | ||
20Media War & ConflictSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.50Q2 | 2.26 1.46 up from 2018 | 79 | 31% | $3,650 | ||
21Journalism PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.49Q2 | 2.39 0.16 up from 2018 | 222 | 31% | — | ||
22Corporate Communications An International JournalEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.46Q2 | 2.27 0.27 up from 2018 | 116 | 26% | — | ||
23Journal of International CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.45Q2 | 0.91 0.26 up from 2018 | 48 | 29% | — | ||
24JournalismSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.39Q2 | 2.17 0.03 up from 2018 | 418 | 22% | $3,900 | ||
25Journal of Communication ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.32Q2 | 2.56 0.18 up from 2018 | 92 | 23% | — | ||
26Journal of Deliberative DemocracyOAUnited Kingdom | 2.13Q2 | 1.33 0.30 up from 2018 | 66 | 100% | — | ||
27Knowledge Management Research & PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.06Q2 | 2.46 0.08 up from 2018 | 114 | 30% | — | ||
28International Journal of Strategic CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.02Q2 | 3.00 0.79 up from 2018 | 99 | 38% | — | ||
29VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management SystemsEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.97Q2 | 3.28 1.21 up from 2018 | 89 | 9% | — | ||
30Media International AustraliaPublisher not listed | 1.92Q2 | 1.22 0.04 up from 2018 | 157 | 26% | $3,650 | ||
31Journal of International StudentsOAEditors of the journals · United States | 1.78Q2 | 1.42 0.46 down from 2018 | 236 | 100% | — | ||
32CommunicationsDe Gruyter Mouton · Germany | 1.74Q2 | 1.58 0.70 up from 2018 | 95 | 43% | $2,712 | ||
33Journal of Intercultural Communication ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.69Q2 | 1.17 0.29 down from 2018 | 102 | 14% | — | ||
34Journal of International and Intercultural CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.64Q2 | 1.16 0.11 up from 2018 | 69 | 7% | — | ||
35Journal of Intercultural CommunicationOAPublisher not listed | 1.52Q2 | 1.88 1.38 up from 2018 | 65 | 100% | — | ||
36Public Relations InquirySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.35Q2 | 1.69 0.20 down from 2018 | 42 | 50% | $3,650 | ||
37Asian Journal of CommunicationRoutledge · United Kingdom | 1.34Q2 | 1.29 0.20 up from 2018 | 125 | 14% | — | ||
38Studies in Communication and MediaOANomos · Germany | 1.32Q3 | 1.18 0.09 up from 2018 | 58 | 100% | — | ||
39Nordicom review/NORDICOM reviewOADe Gruyter Open · Sweden | 1.31Q3 | 1.58 0.91 up from 2018 | 87 | 100% | — | ||
40Global Media and CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.30Q3 | 1.22 0.38 up from 2018 | 64 | 22% | $3,650 | ||
41Westminster Papers in Communication and CultureOAUnited Kingdom | 1.29Q3 | 1.09 0.34 up from 2018 | 197 | 100% | — | ||
42Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast & Audio MediaIntellect · United Kingdom | 1.26Q3 | 0.63 0.65 down from 2018 | 49 | 22% | — | ||
43Journal of Political MarketingTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.15Q3 | 1.29 0.24 up from 2018 | 71 | 14% | — | ||
44International Journal of Cross Cultural ManagementSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.10Q3 | 1.33 0.42 down from 2018 | 52 | 50% | $3,650 | ||
45El Profesional de la InformacionOAEdiciones Profesionales de la Informacion SL · Spain | 1.06Q3 | 1.54 0.10 up from 2018 | 339 | 100% | — | ||
46Journal of Teaching in International BusinessTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.03Q3 | 0.89 0.11 down from 2018 | 54 | 29% | — | ||
47Critical Studies in Television The International Journal of Television StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.99Q3 | 0.92 0.25 up from 2018 | 77 | 32% | $3,650 | ||
48International Journal of Knowledge ManagementOAIGI Global · United States | 0.97Q3 | 1.46 0.13 down from 2018 | 65 | 4% | — | ||
49African Journalism StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.95Q3 | 0.75 0.10 up from 2018 | 80 | 7% | — | ||
50Asia Pacific Media EducatorSAGE Publishing · India | 0.95Q3 | 0.80 0.15 up from 2018 | 50 | 19% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Communication highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,325
- Education724
- Political Science and International Relations326
- Communication74
- Gender Studies64
- Safety Research56
- Health53
- Public Administration51
- Law48
- Linguistics and Language48
- Urban Studies48
- Transportation46
- Library and Information Sciences44
- Demography38
- Anthropology37
- Geography, Planning and Development31
- Cultural Studies8
- Development3
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2019. Corpus-wide, 83.4% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
15 additional Communication journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2016–2018, 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: 2019. Publication window: 2016–2018. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 74
- Window papers (baseline)
- 34,506 +6.5% from indicator year 2016
- Median OJR
- 1.333 -14.8% from indicator year 2016
- Rising journals (2025)
- 3
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2016–2018 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 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 36 | 35 | 35 | 38 | 38 | 43 | 48 | 52 | 52 | 54 | 57 | 66 | 65 | 68 | 71 | 74 | 74 | 79 | 75 | 77 | 73 | 72 | 71 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 6,625 | 7,353 | 8,060 | 9,040 | 9,893 | 11,132 | 12,598 | 14,308 | 16,130 | 18,165 | 20,333 | 22,525 | 25,150 | 27,541 | 29,419 | 31,115 | 32,404 | 33,284 | 33,565 | 34,506 | 36,327 | 39,973 | 43,466 | 44,324 | 43,348 | 42,854 | |
| Median OJR | 0.692 | 0.54 | 0.691 | 0.67 | 0.94 | 1.31 | 1.570 | 1.66 | 1.47 | 1.86 | 1.80 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.72 | 1.49 | 1.74 | 1.56 | 1.59 | 1.54 | 1.333 | 1.42 | 1.326 | 1.48 | 1.62 | 1.68 | 1.565 |
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.