Journal rankings · indicator year 2019
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2019
Social Sciences journal rankings 2019
3,028 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Social Sciences has 3,028 ranked journals in 2019. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.33 against 1.00, up 0.02 on 2018. A journal needs OJR 2.48 to reach Q1. The top three are Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, American Political Science Review, and Journal of democracy.
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 in Social Sciences (22)
Up to Social Sciences3,028 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Annual Review of Applied LinguisticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 17.24Q1 | 3.82 1.27 down from 2018 | 47 | 35% | $3,550 | ||
2American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 13.81Q1 | 8.50 3.31 up from 2018 | 228 | 54% | $3,550 | ||
3Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 13.76Q1 | 5.24 0.62 down from 2018 | 221 | 3% | — | ||
4Social Issues and Policy ReviewWiley · United States | 13.56Q1 | 10.96 1.57 down from 2018 | 32 | 56% | $3,800 | ||
5American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.86Q1 | 10.80 1.40 up from 2018 | 136 | 30% | $3,900 | ||
6International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 12.62Q1 | 5.71 0.94 up from 2018 | 78 | 33% | — | ||
7American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 12.24Q1 | 8.18 1.40 up from 2018 | 149 | 39% | $4,100 | ||
8The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 11.93Q1 | 11.79 3.55 up from 2018 | 83 | 8% | $4,120 | ||
9Critical Historical StudiesUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 11.40Q1 | 0.22 1.03 down from 2018 | 33 | 12% | — | ||
10Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 11.26Q1 | 10.09 5.15 up from 2018 | 58 | 42% | $2,500 | ||
11South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 11.15Q1 | 5.83 1.95 up from 2018 | 88 | 60% | — | ||
12Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 11.10Q1 | 6.75 1.37 up from 2018 | 293 | 55% | — | ||
13Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.32Q1 | 9.44 2.34 up from 2018 | 682 | 26% | $4,690 | ||
14Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.24Q1 | 9.22 1.03 up from 2018 | 138 | 100% | $2,000 | ||
15Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.86Q1 | 9.11 1.78 up from 2018 | 97 | 40% | $5,400 | ||
16Journal of Economic GrowthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 9.82Q1 | 3.95 3.49 down from 2018 | 34 | 46% | $4,290 | ||
17Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.73Q1 | 5.99 0.29 down from 2018 | 201 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
18Sociology of EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.65Q1 | 5.98 1.93 up from 2018 | 63 | 18% | $3,650 | ||
19Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.64Q1 | 6.40 0.57 up from 2018 | 157 | 28% | $2,500 | ||
20Progress in Human GeographySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 9.56Q1 | 6.37 0.92 up from 2018 | 199 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
21European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 9.53Q1 | 5.01 0.86 up from 2018 | 179 | 57% | $3,550 | ||
22American Educational Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 9.50Q1 | 5.89 0.77 up from 2018 | 186 | 16% | $2,500 | ||
23Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 9.43Q1 | 8.01 1.03 up from 2018 | 211 | 43% | $4,360 | ||
24West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.41Q1 | 4.13 0.51 up from 2018 | 223 | 72% | — | ||
25Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 9.19Q1 | 5.17 0.36 up from 2018 | 226 | 100% | — | ||
26Educational Evaluation and Policy AnalysisSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.95Q1 | 4.80 0.97 down from 2018 | 86 | 17% | $2,500 | ||
27Cultural AnthropologyOAWiley · United States | 8.86Q1 | 6.49 2.24 up from 2018 | 102 | 100% | — | ||
28Harvard Educational ReviewHarvard University Press · United States | 8.82Q1 | 6.32 1.35 up from 2018 | 108 | 36% | — | ||
29European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.67Q1 | 5.56 2.01 up from 2018 | 104 | 48% | $3,900 | ||
30Journal of Teacher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.67Q1 | 5.23 1.21 up from 2018 | 142 | 19% | $3,900 | ||
31International Studies QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 8.65Q1 | 4.68 1.15 up from 2018 | 202 | 30% | $4,320 | ||
32International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.61Q1 | 12.37 3.36 up from 2018 | 397 | 27% | $3,990 | ||
33American Journal of SociologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 8.58Q1 | 6.00 0.27 down from 2018 | 128 | 6% | — | ||
34The Future of ChildrenPrinceton School of Public and International Affairs · United States | 8.57Q1 | 9.67 3.80 up from 2018 | 39 | 13% | — | ||
35Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.51Q1 | 17.33 3.45 up from 2018 | 39 | 82% | $3,900 | ||
36European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.39Q1 | 4.64 0.45 up from 2018 | 93 | 32% | $3,650 | ||
37Politics & SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 8.36Q1 | 5.37 2.01 up from 2018 | 68 | 31% | $3,650 | ||
38American EthnologistWiley · United States | 8.20Q1 | 5.18 0.03 up from 2018 | 132 | 12% | $3,400 | ||
39CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom | 8.11Q1 | 7.31 1.85 up from 2018 | 94 | 38% | $3,570 | ||
40Research in Organizational BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.06Q1 | 6.70 0.75 down from 2018 | 32 | 25% | $2,340 | ||
41Journal of Peace ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.04Q1 | 5.33 2.14 up from 2018 | 185 | 31% | $3,900 | ||
42Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.01Q1 | 7.08 0.26 up from 2018 | 272 | 27% | $4,540 | ||
43Transactions of the Institute of British GeographersWiley · United Kingdom | 7.85Q1 | 6.52 1.58 up from 2018 | 161 | 47% | $4,070 | ||
44Eurasian Geography and EconomicsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.76Q1 | 3.62 0.51 up from 2018 | 94 | 17% | — | ||
45The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 7.68Q1 | 4.94 0.54 up from 2018 | 352 | 18% | — | ||
46Computers & EducationElsevier BV · United States | 7.60Q1 | 9.93 1.11 up from 2018 | 565 | 30% | $5,190 | ||
47Journal of Destination Marketing & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.53Q1 | 6.57 2.61 up from 2018 | 207 | 30% | $4,320 | ||
48Journal of Conflict ResolutionSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.52Q1 | 4.82 3.02 up from 2018 | 174 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
49Journal of Travel ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.52Q1 | 7.03 2.02 up from 2018 | 243 | 37% | $3,900 | ||
50JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 7.52Q1 | 4.65 1.40 up from 2018 | 285 | 46% | $4,170 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, compared.
- 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.
809 additional Social Sciences 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
- 3,028
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,663,801 +12.2% from indicator year 2016
- Median OJR
- 1.33 -2.1% from indicator year 2016
- Rising journals (2025)
- 134Comparison-group list (134)
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 | 1,406 | 1,451 | 1,539 | 1,622 | 1,698 | 1,765 | 1,844 | 1,932 | 2,018 | 2,111 | 2,231 | 2,335 | 2,450 | 2,548 | 2,662 | 2,755 | 2,851 | 2,959 | 2,994 | 3,028 | 3,056 | 3,141 | 3,149 | 3,144 | 3,107 | 3,066 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 443,953 | 481,120 | 524,797 | 573,040 | 615,403 | 666,449 | 723,952 | 792,817 | 867,532 | 946,631 | 1,027,940 | 1,103,353 | 1,185,358 | 1,256,728 | 1,323,833 | 1,400,086 | 1,483,492 | 1,554,301 | 1,600,611 | 1,663,801 | 1,760,718 | 1,914,483 | 2,065,185 | 2,148,493 | 2,214,535 | 2,302,259 | |
| Median OJR | 0.86 | 0.91 | 0.92 | 0.97 | 1.03 | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.30 | 1.365 | 1.382 | 1.43 | 1.42 | 1.40 | 1.377 | 1.356 | 1.352 | 1.353 | 1.346 | 1.31 | 1.33 | 1.32 | 1.23 | 1.194 | 1.187 | 1.18 | 1.20 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.7% | 1,882 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.498 per 1,000 | 1,610 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -2.6% | 2,852 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 58.5% | 3,066 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,400 | 1,164 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 18.2% | 2,785 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 3,066 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 1.22 | 3,041 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 44.4% | 3,066 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 49.7% | 3,059 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.