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
Health journal rankings 2020
54 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Health has 54 ranked journals in 2020. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.04 against 1.00, down 0.02 on 2019. A journal needs OJR 1.53 to reach Q1. The top three are Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, and Psychosocial Intervention.
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)
54 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 Health and Social BehaviorSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.04Q1 | 4.66 1.59 up from 2019 | 111 | 49% | $3,900 | ||
2Social Science & MedicineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.03Q1 | 5.02 0.01 up from 2019 | 1,664 | 55% | $3,800 | ||
3Psychosocial InterventionOAColegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid · Spain | 2.38Q1 | 5.17 0.57 up from 2019 | 56 | 100% | — | ||
4SSM - Population HealthOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.26Q1 | 3.71 0.61 up from 2019 | 392 | 100% | $2,930 | ||
5European Journal of AgeingSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.24Q1 | 2.97 0.18 up from 2019 | 140 | 100% | $3,190 | ||
6Psychology of ViolenceAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 2.16Q1 | 2.85no change | 188 | 34% | — | ||
7Journal of Urban HealthSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.95Q1 | 3.91 0.94 up from 2019 | 264 | 100% | $4,790 | ||
8Violence Against WomenSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.95Q1 | 2.77 0.95 up from 2019 | 281 | 16% | $3,650 | ||
9Journal of Epidemiology & Community HealthBMJ · United Kingdom | 1.91Q1 | 4.16 0.48 up from 2019 | 519 | 66% | — | ||
10Homicide StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.81Q1 | 2.34 0.23 up from 2019 | 55 | 21% | $3,650 | ||
11Psychology of Religion and SpiritualityAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.63Q1 | 2.93 1.09 up from 2019 | 180 | 20% | — | ||
12Research on AgingSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.59Q1 | 2.21 0.21 up from 2019 | 101 | 33% | $4,150 | ||
13Injury EpidemiologyOABioMed Central · Germany | 1.57Q1 | 2.81 0.55 down from 2019 | 126 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
14The International Journal of Aging and Human DevelopmentSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.53Q1 | 2.10 0.58 up from 2019 | 159 | 7% | $3,650 | ||
15Vaccine XOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.43Q2 | 3.49 0.82 up from 2019 | 41 | 100% | $2,440 | ||
16Violence and GenderMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.42Q2 | 2.39 0.95 up from 2019 | 99 | 20% | — | ||
17International Journal for the Psychology of ReligionRoutledge · United States | 1.40Q2 | 2.74 1.68 up from 2019 | 56 | 32% | — | ||
18Journal of Family ViolenceSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.39Q2 | 2.37 0.71 up from 2019 | 212 | 32% | $4,090 | ||
19Public HealthElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.36Q2 | 2.81 0.41 up from 2019 | 844 | 55% | $3,130 | ||
20Journal of Behavioral MedicineSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.33Q2 | 2.86 0.01 up from 2019 | 296 | 64% | $4,790 | ||
21Journal of Aging and HealthSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.33Q2 | 2.28 0.39 up from 2019 | 274 | 55% | $4,400 | ||
22Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.19Q2 | 1.98 0.35 up from 2019 | 1,350 | 27% | $3,900 | ||
23Human Vaccines & ImmunotherapeuticsOATaylor & Francis · United States | 1.12Q2 | 3.18 0.21 up from 2019 | 1,091 | 100% | $3,175 | ||
24Violence and VictimsSpringer Nature · United States | 1.12Q2 | 1.66 0.74 up from 2019 | 227 | 16% | — | ||
25Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public HealthOAElsevier BV · Australia | 1.11Q2 | 2.58 0.38 up from 2019 | 318 | 100% | $2,600 | ||
26Health Promotion PerspectivesOATabriz University of Medical Sciences · Iran | 1.10Q2 | 2.37 0.24 up from 2019 | 123 | 100% | — | ||
27Archive for the Psychology of ReligionSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.05Q2 | 1.33 0.18 down from 2019 | 47 | 30% | $3,650 | ||
28Journal of Health Care ChaplaincyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.03Q3 | 1.86 0.44 down from 2019 | 44 | 14% | — | ||
29Journal of Religion and HealthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.01Q3 | 1.91 0.25 up from 2019 | 620 | 38% | $3,290 | ||
30Global Social WelfareSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 0.92Q3 | 1.31 0.52 up from 2019 | 85 | 29% | $2,290 | ||
31Health Sociology ReviewTaylor & Francis · Australia | 0.87Q3 | 1.03 0.09 up from 2019 | 53 | 50% | — | ||
32Revista Panamericana de Salud PúblicaOAPan American Health Organization | 0.86Q3 | 2.02 1.03 up from 2019 | 433 | 100% | — | ||
33Spirituality in Clinical PracticeAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 0.84Q3 | 1.25 0.05 up from 2019 | 78 | 10% | — | ||
34Partner AbuseSpringer Nature · United States | 0.80Q3 | 1.39 0.20 up from 2019 | 69 | 11% | — | ||
35Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social ThoughtTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.76Q3 | 0.93 0.05 down from 2019 | 80 | 16% | — | ||
36Journal of the Egyptian Public Health AssociationOALippincott Williams & Wilkins · Egypt | 0.74Q3 | 2.46 2.09 up from 2019 | 68 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
37Mental Health Religion & CultureTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.73Q3 | 1.54 0.90 up from 2019 | 236 | 16% | — | ||
38BMC ProceedingsOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 0.71Q3 | 1.78 0.50 up from 2019 | 102 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
39Journal of Muslim Mental HealthOAMichigan Publishing · United States | 0.65Q3 | 0.68 0.28 up from 2019 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
40Pastoral PsychologySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.55Q3 | 0.81 0.15 up from 2019 | 126 | 13% | $3,090 | ||
41Journal of Religion Spirituality & AgingTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.54Q3 | 0.98 0.28 up from 2019 | 65 | 21% | — | ||
42Journal for the Study of SpiritualityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.53Q4 | 0.94 0.35 up from 2019 | 48 | 17% | — | ||
43Journal of Spirituality in Mental HealthTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.52Q4 | 0.90 0.21 up from 2019 | 69 | 6% | — | ||
44Journal of Applied Research on Children Informing Policy for Children at RiskChildren at Risk · United States | 0.50Q4 | 0.63 0.73 down from 2019 | 45 | 95% | — | ||
45Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling Advancing theory and professional practice through scholarly and reflective publicationsSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.50Q4 | 0.66 0.23 up from 2019 | 131 | 18% | $3,650 | ||
46Current Trauma ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 0.49Q4 | 1.21 0.57 up from 2019 | 110 | 11% | $4,090 | ||
47International Journal of Children s SpiritualityRoutledge · United Kingdom | 0.33Q4 | 0.56 0.22 down from 2019 | 91 | 27% | — | ||
48Journal of Psychology and TheologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.33Q4 | 0.68 0.15 down from 2019 | 82 | 6% | $3,650 | ||
49The Journal of psychology and ChristianityChristian Association for Psychological Studies · United States | 0.30Q4 | 0.53 0.05 up from 2019 | 60 | 0% | — | ||
50Journal of Social InclusionOAGriffith University · Australia | 0.28Q4 | 0.24 0.11 down from 2019 | 78 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Health 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.
10 additional Health 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
- 54
- Window papers (baseline)
- 35,666 +20.9% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.04 -2.4% 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 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 43 | 47 | 45 | 50 | 52 | 53 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 53 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 7,122 | 8,015 | 8,583 | 9,226 | 9,628 | 10,256 | 10,891 | 11,827 | 12,973 | 14,517 | 15,820 | 17,136 | 18,694 | 20,642 | 22,973 | 25,184 | 27,537 | 29,507 | 31,138 | 32,975 | 35,666 | 40,811 | 49,073 | 55,188 | 57,921 | 56,328 | |
| Median OJR | 0.70 | 0.60 | 0.77 | 0.5185 | 0.5180 | 0.38 | 0.59 | 0.86 | 0.89 | 0.97 | 1.09 | 0.9995 | 0.94 | 0.93 | 1.10 | 1.067 | 0.96 | 1.064 | 1.111 | 1.060 | 1.04 | 1.074 | 1.080 | 1.057 | 1.079 | 1.113 |
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.