Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2020
Anthropology journal rankings 2020
37 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Anthropology has 37 ranked journals in 2020. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.09 against 1.00, down 0.02 on 2019. A journal needs OJR 2.51 to reach Q1. The top three are Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, Current Anthropology, and American Ethnologist.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2020. 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 2017–2019, the window the 2020 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)
37 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 2019. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2017–2019, the window the 2020 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2017–2019 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 2011 to 2020. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of Paleolithic ArchaeologySpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 5.64Q1 | 3.41 0.95 up from 2019 | 42 | 48% | $3,190 | ||
2Current AnthropologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 5.09Q1 | 4.91 1.25 up from 2019 | 258 | 20% | — | ||
3American EthnologistWiley · United States | 4.65Q1 | 2.28 2.90 down from 2019 | 120 | 21% | $3,400 | ||
4Journal of Social ArchaeologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.56Q1 | 2.74 1.14 down from 2019 | 54 | 33% | $3,650 | ||
5Journal of Human EvolutionElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.43Q1 | 5.08 1.01 up from 2019 | 396 | 46% | $3,990 | ||
6World ArchaeologyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 2.90Q1 | 2.69 0.15 down from 2019 | 135 | 44% | — | ||
7African Archaeological ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · United Kingdom | 2.79Q1 | 1.68 0.55 up from 2019 | 112 | 47% | $3,390 | ||
8Journal of Archaeological Method and TheorySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.78Q1 | 4.11 0.94 up from 2019 | 118 | 56% | $3,190 | ||
9Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and ReviewsWiley · United States | 2.68Q1 | 4.51 2.48 up from 2019 | 134 | 34% | $5,000 | ||
10Azania Archaeological Research in AfricaRoutledge · United Kingdom | 2.51Q1 | 1.46 0.24 up from 2019 | 125 | 16% | — | ||
11ArchaeologiesSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.30Q2 | 1.84 1.06 up from 2019 | 72 | 41% | $3,290 | ||
12American AnthropologistWiley · United States | 1.90Q2 | 1.47 0.29 up from 2019 | 352 | 15% | $3,400 | ||
13Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africainesTaylor & Francis · Canada | 1.63Q2 | 1.27 0.23 up from 2019 | 175 | 12% | — | ||
14Journal of African Cultural StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.41Q2 | 0.68 0.12 down from 2019 | 88 | 16% | — | ||
15Journal of Anthropological ResearchUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 1.33Q2 | 1.26 0.46 down from 2019 | 59 | 2% | — | ||
16Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and HeritageTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.18Q2 | 0.93 0.58 up from 2019 | 40 | 16% | — | ||
17PaleoAmericaTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.18Q2 | 1.59 0.13 up from 2019 | 93 | 17% | — | ||
18Social AnalysisOABerghahn Books · United States | 1.17Q2 | 0.70 0.37 down from 2019 | 114 | 100% | — | ||
19Historical ArchaeologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.09Q2 | 0.66 0.09 up from 2019 | 204 | 18% | $2,190 | ||
20Annual Review of AnthropologyAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.02Q3 | 4.61 0.22 down from 2019 | 88 | 38% | — | ||
21Lithic TechnologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.97Q3 | 0.96 0.17 up from 2019 | 62 | 26% | — | ||
22International Journal of Historical ArchaeologySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.97Q3 | 0.83 0.06 up from 2019 | 126 | 29% | $3,290 | ||
23Journal of Lithic StudiesOAUniversity of Edinburgh · United Kingdom | 0.91Q3 | 0.70 0.16 up from 2019 | 76 | 100% | — | ||
24Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological AssociationWiley · United States | 0.90Q3 | 0.96 0.09 down from 2019 | 33 | 27% | $3,090 | ||
25Journal of world historyWorld History Association · United States | 0.84Q3 | 0.48 0.11 up from 2019 | 189 | 11% | — | ||
26Archaeological DialoguesCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.78Q3 | 1.02 0.07 down from 2019 | 63 | 50% | $3,550 | ||
27The Journal of African HistoryCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.75Q3 | 0.48 0.05 down from 2019 | 81 | 16% | $3,550 | ||
28PaléoFrance | 0.62Q3 | 0.56 0.05 up from 2019 | 48 | 100% | — | ||
29L AnthropologieElsevier BV · France | 0.58Q4 | 0.58 0.06 down from 2019 | 116 | 17% | $3,000 | ||
30Post-Medieval ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.57Q4 | 0.30 0.32 down from 2019 | 83 | 25% | — | ||
31Wicazo Sa ReviewUniversity of Minnesota Press · United States | 0.48Q4 | 0.04 0.24 down from 2019 | 43 | 0% | — | ||
32BritanniaCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.42Q4 | 0.40 0.01 up from 2019 | 99 | 22% | $3,550 | ||
33KIVATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.42Q4 | 0.32 0.03 up from 2019 | 89 | 3% | — | ||
34Plains AnthropologistTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.30Q4 | 0.33 0.07 up from 2019 | 78 | 5% | — | ||
35eTropic electronic journal of studies in the tropicsOAJames Cook University · Australia | 0.24Q4 | 0.45 0.12 up from 2019 | 73 | 100% | — | ||
36General AnthropologyWiley · United States | 0.18Q4 | 0.22 0.13 up from 2019 | 34 | 0% | $3,090 | ||
37Annales Histoire Sciences Sociales (English edition)Cambridge University Press · France | 0.08Q4 | 0.05 0.05 up from 2019 | 90 | — | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Anthropology highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,333
- Education727
- Political Science and International Relations332
- Communication79
- Gender Studies64
- Safety Research55
- Health54
- Urban Studies52
- Public Administration51
- Linguistics and Language49
- Law48
- Transportation46
- Library and Information Sciences41
- Demography40
- Anthropology37
- Geography, Planning and Development33
- Cultural Studies8
- Development3
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2020. Corpus-wide, 86.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
12 additional Anthropology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2017–2019, 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: 2020. Publication window: 2017–2019. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 37
- Window papers (baseline)
- 50,830 +2.2% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.090 +3.9% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 2
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2017–2019 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 | 24 | 27 | 26 | 29 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 33 | 35 | 34 | 34 | 36 | 37 | 36 | 37 | 40 | 41 | 38 | 37 | 37 | 38 | 37 | 38 | 36 | 37 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 22,731 | 23,854 | 24,889 | 25,805 | 26,822 | 27,939 | 29,189 | 30,667 | 32,410 | 34,308 | 36,950 | 38,915 | 40,591 | 41,376 | 42,782 | 44,295 | 47,379 | 49,734 | 51,045 | 50,925 | 50,830 | 51,203 | 50,651 | 48,994 | 47,124 | 47,101 | |
| Median OJR | 1.32 | 0.80 | 0.935 | 0.92 | 0.9430 | 1.0913 | 0.9426 | 1.182 | 0.84 | 1.04 | 1.13 | 1.29 | 1.123 | 1.0911 | 1.178 | 1.16 | 1.35 | 1.05 | 1.24 | 1.11 | 1.090 | 1.121 | 1.033 | 1.089 | 1.005 | 1.031 |
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.