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
Linguistics and Language journal rankings 2020
49 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Linguistics and Language has 49 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR fell 0.31 on 2019 to 2.53, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 3.88. The top three are Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, International Journal of Multilingualism, and Applied Linguistics.
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)
49 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Annual Review of Applied LinguisticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 7.33Q1 | 4.20 0.38 up from 2019 | 49 | 33% | $3,550 | ||
2International Journal of MultilingualismRoutledge · United Kingdom | 6.16Q1 | 3.39 0.08 down from 2019 | 119 | 19% | — | ||
3Applied LinguisticsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 5.78Q1 | 2.07 1.76 down from 2019 | 196 | 23% | $5,481 | ||
4Journal of Language Identity & EducationTaylor & Francis · United States | 5.64Q1 | 2.28 0.51 down from 2019 | 112 | 11% | — | ||
5Linguistics and EducationElsevier BV · United States | 5.10Q1 | 2.93 0.89 up from 2019 | 155 | 30% | $2,620 | ||
6International Journal of Bilingual Education and BilingualismRoutledge · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 3.33 1.22 up from 2019 | 283 | 30% | — | ||
7Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural DevelopmentTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.85Q1 | 2.92 0.62 up from 2019 | 288 | 29% | — | ||
8Language in SocietyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.83Q1 | 2.93 1.05 up from 2019 | 219 | 32% | $3,550 | ||
9TESOL QuarterlyWiley · United States | 4.68Q1 | 3.32 0.11 up from 2019 | 180 | 18% | $2,850 | ||
10Journal of SociolinguisticsWiley · United Kingdom | 4.26Q1 | 1.80 0.38 down from 2019 | 123 | 23% | $3,730 | ||
11Journal of Linguistic AnthropologyWiley · United States | 4.19Q1 | 2.04 0.88 down from 2019 | 74 | 12% | $3,400 | ||
12Language and Intercultural CommunicationRoutledge · United Kingdom | 3.91Q1 | 1.90 0.05 up from 2019 | 101 | 40% | — | ||
13Language PolicySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.88Q1 | 2.04 0.85 up from 2019 | 106 | 45% | $3,090 | ||
14International Multilingual Research JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.54Q2 | 2.00 0.05 down from 2019 | 63 | 38% | — | ||
15Current Issues in Language PlanningTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.39Q2 | 2.31 0.94 up from 2019 | 76 | 33% | — | ||
16European Journal of Applied LinguisticsDe Gruyter · Germany | 3.38Q2 | 1.41 0.47 up from 2019 | 43 | 71% | $0 listed | ||
17Bilingual Research JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.31Q2 | 2.48 0.45 up from 2019 | 89 | 3% | — | ||
18Critical Inquiry in Language StudiesTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.22Q2 | 1.64 0.61 down from 2019 | 44 | 11% | — | ||
19Asian EnglishesTaylor & Francis | 3.18Q2 | 1.94 0.63 up from 2019 | 75 | 13% | — | ||
20Journal of English LinguisticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.08Q2 | 2.23 0.11 up from 2019 | 47 | 35% | $3,650 | ||
21Applied Linguistics ReviewDe Gruyter · Germany | 3.07Q2 | 3.01 0.78 up from 2019 | 133 | 40% | $2,712 | ||
22English World-Wide A Journal of Varieties of EnglishJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Germany | 2.89Q2 | 1.41 0.23 up from 2019 | 63 | 10% | — | ||
23International Journal of the Sociology of LanguageDe Gruyter · Germany | 2.71Q2 | 2.21 1.38 up from 2019 | 161 | 57% | $2,712 | ||
24NABE Journal of Research and PracticeTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.62Q2 | 0.25 0.15 up from 2019 | 30 | 0% | — | ||
25Linguistic Landscape An international journalJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 2.53Q2 | 1.44 0.39 up from 2019 | 54 | 8% | — | ||
26MultilinguaDe Gruyter Mouton · Germany | 2.41Q3 | 1.46 0.20 down from 2019 | 103 | 55% | $2,712 | ||
27Journal of Language ContactOABrill · France | 2.38Q3 | 2.32 1.50 up from 2019 | 61 | 100% | — | ||
28English Language and LinguisticsCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 2.18Q3 | 2.85 1.51 up from 2019 | 109 | 44% | $3,550 | ||
29Journal of Multicultural DiscoursesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.02Q3 | 1.51 0.53 up from 2019 | 70 | 30% | — | ||
30World EnglishesWiley · United Kingdom | 1.88Q3 | 1.33 0.03 up from 2019 | 187 | 26% | $3,570 | ||
31English TodayCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.68Q3 | 1.24 0.30 up from 2019 | 131 | 38% | $3,550 | ||
32Language Dynamics and ChangeBrill · Netherlands | 1.64Q3 | 0.74 2.89 down from 2019 | 30 | 53% | — | ||
33Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantesUniversity of Toronto Press · Canada | 1.61Q3 | 1.40 0.23 up from 2019 | 74 | 4% | — | ||
34International Journal of BilingualismSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.29Q3 | 1.76 0.34 down from 2019 | 149 | 37% | $3,650 | ||
35Language Variation and ChangeCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.29Q3 | 2.28 0.45 up from 2019 | 64 | 71% | $3,550 | ||
36Journal of Historical SociolinguisticsDe Gruyter · Germany | 1.13Q3 | 0.85 0.16 up from 2019 | 63 | 52% | $2,712 | ||
37Language Problems & Language PlanningJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 1.10Q3 | 0.50 0.11 up from 2019 | 70 | 8% | — | ||
38American SpeechDuke University Press · United States | 0.93Q4 | 0.98 0.28 down from 2019 | 95 | 10% | — | ||
39Linguistic Approaches to BilingualismJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 0.85Q4 | 1.03 1.01 down from 2019 | 152 | 22% | — | ||
40Canadian Journal of Applied LinguisticsOAUniversity of New Brunswick · Canada | 0.70Q4 | 0.54 0.53 down from 2019 | 35 | 100% | — | ||
41Heritage Language JournalUnited States | 0.61Q4 | 0.73 0.25 up from 2019 | 47 | 7% | — | ||
42Diversité urbaineCanada | 0.58Q4 | 0.45 0.33 up from 2019 | 32 | 0% | — | ||
43AlsicOAMarc Bloch University · France | 0.58Q4 | 0.17 0.36 down from 2019 | 79 | 100% | — | ||
| 0.57Q4 | 0.40 0.09 up from 2019 | 62 | 100% | — | |||
45Sociolinguistic StudiesEquinox Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.49Q4 | 0.44 0.12 down from 2019 | 80 | 11% | — | ||
46Oceanic LinguisticsUniversity of Hawaii Press · United States | 0.48Q4 | 0.41 0.06 up from 2019 | 68 | 16% | — | ||
| 0.44Q4 | 0.35 0.32 down from 2019 | 62 | 45% | $2,712 | |||
48Critical multilingualism studiesOADepartment of German Studies · United States | 0.44Q4 | 0.11 0.10 down from 2019 | 113 | 100% | — | ||
49Publication of the American Dialect SocietyDuke University Press · United States | 0.21Q4 | 0.19 0.71 down from 2019 | 30 | 0% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Linguistics and Language 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 Linguistics and Language 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
- 49
- Window papers (baseline)
- 19,095 +12.0% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 2.53 -3.3% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
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 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 32 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 35 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 40 | 41 | 43 | 45 | 47 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 48 | 51 | 49 | 48 | 50 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 5,844 | 6,337 | 6,715 | 7,184 | 7,595 | 7,933 | 8,416 | 9,108 | 10,166 | 11,212 | 12,402 | 13,244 | 14,103 | 14,696 | 15,201 | 15,641 | 16,486 | 17,042 | 17,820 | 18,058 | 19,095 | 19,911 | 20,332 | 19,938 | 19,424 | 19,862 | |
| Median OJR | 0.97 | 1.10 | 0.99 | 2.75 | 1.518 | 1.24 | 1.515 | 1.63 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 2.09 | 2.27 | 2.30 | 2.16 | 2.37 | 2.45 | 2.90 | 2.62 | 2.59 | 2.84 | 2.53 | 2.02 | 1.61 | 1.87 | 1.86 | 2.14 |
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.