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
Communication journal rankings 2020
79 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Communication has 79 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR rose 0.09 on 2019 to 1.42, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.44. The top three are Journal of Communication, The International Journal of Press/Politics, and Political Communication.
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)
79 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 CommunicationOxford University Press · United States | 8.44Q1 | 8.27 0.27 up from 2019 | 192 | 39% | $4,235 | ||
2The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.12Q1 | 7.71 3.12 up from 2019 | 78 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
3Political CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 7.89Q1 | 7.80 2.62 up from 2019 | 124 | 28% | — | ||
4Digital JournalismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.12Q1 | 8.35 1.39 up from 2019 | 201 | 34% | — | ||
5Journal of Knowledge ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 5.93Q1 | 10.85 3.29 up from 2019 | 282 | 24% | — | ||
6Journal of Studies in International EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.07Q1 | 3.13 0.34 up from 2019 | 115 | 36% | $3,650 | ||
7Journal of Public Relations ResearchTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.81Q1 | 6.59 2.82 up from 2019 | 39 | 7% | — | ||
8Annals of the International Communication AssociationTaylor & Francis | 3.80Q1 | 6.50 1.64 up from 2019 | 61 | 15% | $3,368 | ||
9European Journal of CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.67Q1 | 3.48 0.39 up from 2019 | 196 | 29% | $3,650 | ||
10Public Relations ReviewElsevier BV · United States | 3.48Q1 | 4.89 0.89 up from 2019 | 285 | 25% | $4,310 | ||
11Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 3.38Q1 | 4.25 1.73 up from 2019 | 153 | 16% | $3,900 | ||
12Discourse & CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.35Q1 | 2.85 0.57 up from 2019 | 101 | 21% | $3,650 | ||
13Journal of Information Technology & PoliticsRoutledge · United States | 3.31Q1 | 4.19 0.56 up from 2019 | 80 | 26% | — | ||
14Media and CommunicationOACogitatio · Portugal | 3.04Q1 | 3.34 0.82 up from 2019 | 200 | 100% | $1,132 | ||
15Journalism StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 3.02Q1 | 4.03 1.60 up from 2019 | 275 | 38% | — | ||
16Communication TheoryWiley · United States | 2.84Q1 | 3.30 1.39 up from 2019 | 83 | 27% | $4,235 | ||
17International Journal of Strategic CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.74Q1 | 4.86 1.86 up from 2019 | 86 | 13% | — | ||
18JournalismSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.64Q1 | 2.81 0.63 up from 2019 | 426 | 44% | $3,900 | ||
19Media War & ConflictSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.58Q1 | 1.43 0.83 down from 2019 | 104 | 29% | $3,650 | ||
20VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management SystemsEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.44Q1 | 3.73 0.45 up from 2019 | 115 | 11% | — | ||
21International Communication GazetteSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.40Q2 | 2.38no change | 136 | 36% | $3,650 | ||
22Journal of Communication ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.32Q2 | 3.02 0.46 up from 2019 | 86 | 38% | — | ||
23Journalism PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.23Q2 | 2.11 0.28 down from 2019 | 255 | 26% | — | ||
24Communication Research and PracticeTaylor & Francis · Australia | 2.22Q2 | 2.72 1.21 up from 2019 | 67 | 37% | — | ||
25Knowledge Management Research & PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.15Q2 | 3.35 0.89 up from 2019 | 159 | 28% | — | ||
26Journal of International and Intercultural CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.04Q2 | 1.57 0.41 up from 2019 | 66 | 28% | — | ||
27Studies in Communication SciencesOAElsevier BV · Switzerland | 1.97Q2 | 1.91 1.47 up from 2019 | 54 | 100% | — | ||
28Journal of Political MarketingTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.94Q2 | 2.18 0.89 up from 2019 | 70 | 44% | — | ||
29Corporate Communications An International JournalEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.88Q2 | 2.71 0.44 up from 2019 | 125 | 32% | — | ||
30Nordicom review/NORDICOM reviewOADe Gruyter Open · Sweden | 1.77Q2 | 2.09 0.51 up from 2019 | 91 | 100% | — | ||
31Journal of International StudentsOAEditors of the journals · United States | 1.76Q2 | 2.25 0.83 up from 2019 | 236 | 100% | — | ||
32Asian Journal of CommunicationRoutledge · United Kingdom | 1.76Q2 | 2.29 1.00 up from 2019 | 96 | 4% | — | ||
33International Journal of Cross Cultural ManagementSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.59Q2 | 1.80 0.47 up from 2019 | 54 | 29% | $3,650 | ||
34Media International AustraliaPublisher not listed | 1.58Q2 | 1.47 0.24 up from 2019 | 146 | 71% | $3,650 | ||
35El Profesional de la InformacionOAEdiciones Profesionales de la Informacion SL · Spain | 1.52Q2 | 2.43 0.89 up from 2019 | 366 | 100% | — | ||
36The Journal of Public Interest CommunicationsOAGeorge A. Smathers Libraries · United States | 1.51Q2 | 1.71 0.30 up from 2019 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
37Journalism & Communication MonographsSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.49Q2 | 1.06 0.40 up from 2019 | 34 | 7% | $3,400 | ||
38Critical Studies in Television The International Journal of Television StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.48Q2 | 1.30 0.38 up from 2019 | 93 | 38% | $3,650 | ||
39Journal of Global Mobility The Home of Expatriate Management ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.43Q2 | 1.59 3.54 down from 2019 | 71 | 16% | — | ||
40African Journalism StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.42Q2 | 1.67 0.92 up from 2019 | 79 | 16% | — | ||
41Studies in Communication and MediaOANomos · Germany | 1.37Q3 | 1.73 0.55 up from 2019 | 60 | 100% | — | ||
42Journal of International CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.36Q3 | 1.21 0.30 up from 2019 | 44 | 20% | — | ||
43Public Relations InquirySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.36Q3 | 1.85 0.16 up from 2019 | 54 | 50% | $3,650 | ||
44Global Media and CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.31Q3 | 1.46 0.24 up from 2019 | 58 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
45Journal of Intercultural Communication ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.29Q3 | 1.21 0.04 up from 2019 | 96 | 2% | — | ||
46Westminster Papers in Communication and CultureOAUnited Kingdom | 1.28Q3 | 1.24 0.15 up from 2019 | 195 | 100% | — | ||
47CommunicationsDe Gruyter Mouton · Germany | 1.25Q3 | 1.45 0.12 down from 2019 | 108 | 52% | $2,712 | ||
48Asia Pacific Media EducatorSAGE Publishing · India | 1.22Q3 | 1.04 0.24 up from 2019 | 45 | 39% | — | ||
49Internet HistoriesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 1.16Q3 | 1.58 0.38 up from 2019 | 81 | 46% | — | ||
50Newspaper Research JournalSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.97Q3 | 1.13 0.25 up from 2019 | 101 | 24% | $3,200 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Communication 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.
11 additional Communication 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
- 79
- Window papers (baseline)
- 36,327 +9.1% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.42 -10.7% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 3
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 | 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.