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
Literature and Literary Theory journal rankings 2020
60 ranked journals · Subfield in Arts and Humanities
Literature and Literary Theory has 60 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR rose 0.27 on 2019 to 1.51, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 3.08. The top three are Journal of Second Language Writing, Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, and Language Culture and Curriculum.
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 Arts and Humanities (13)
60 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 Second Language WritingElsevier BV · United States | 9.22Q1 | 5.16 1.93 up from 2019 | 114 | 9% | $3,830 | ||
2Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language EducationJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 5.83Q1 | 1.50 0.23 up from 2019 | 45 | 19% | — | ||
3Language Culture and CurriculumRoutledge · United Kingdom | 5.44Q1 | 3.04 1.33 up from 2019 | 73 | 35% | — | ||
4Journal of English for Academic PurposesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 3.32 0.43 up from 2019 | 184 | 20% | $3,730 | ||
5Language and EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.23Q1 | 2.63 0.70 up from 2019 | 96 | 20% | — | ||
6English for Specific PurposesElsevier BV · United States | 5.11Q1 | 4.41 0.12 down from 2019 | 91 | 14% | $3,590 | ||
7Functional LinguisticsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 4.73Q1 | 4.71 3.40 up from 2019 | 33 | 100% | — | ||
8Written CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.53Q1 | 4.08 0.39 up from 2019 | 56 | 12% | $3,650 | ||
9Journal of Literacy ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.49Q1 | 3.38 0.02 down from 2019 | 76 | 14% | $3,650 | ||
10Research in the Teaching of EnglishRoutledge · United States | 4.26Q1 | 1.35 1.05 down from 2019 | 83 | 0% | — | ||
11European Journal of Language PolicyLiverpool University Press · United Kingdom | 4.24Q1 | 1.96 0.81 up from 2019 | 36 | 6% | — | ||
| 3.70Q1 | 0.55 1.16 down from 2019 | 31 | 100% | — | |||
13Literacy in Composition StudiesOAUnited States | 3.67Q1 | 3.79 3.24 up from 2019 | 38 | 100% | — | ||
14Narrative InquiryJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 3.25Q1 | 2.83 1.49 up from 2019 | 56 | 18% | — | ||
15ELT JournalOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.08Q1 | 2.06 0.05 up from 2019 | 199 | 22% | $5,481 | ||
16English EducationNational Council of Teachers of English | 2.71Q2 | 1.03 0.16 down from 2019 | 60 | 0% | — | ||
17Latin American Journal of Content and Language Integrated LearningOAUniversity of La Sabana · Colombia | 2.66Q2 | 1.64 0.64 up from 2019 | 31 | 100% | — | ||
18Journal of Business and Technical CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United States | 2.21Q2 | 2.66 0.54 down from 2019 | 46 | 54% | $3,650 | ||
19LiteracyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.13Q2 | 1.73 0.36 up from 2019 | 84 | 29% | $3,470 | ||
20Journal of Cultural AnalyticsOACanada | 2.11Q2 | 2.70 2.00 up from 2019 | 52 | 100% | — | ||
21Revista Brasileira de Lingüística AplicadaOAFederal University of Minas Gerais · Brazil | 2.08Q2 | 0.74 0.18 up from 2019 | 124 | 100% | — | ||
22Journal of English as a Lingua FrancaDe Gruyter · Germany | 2.08Q2 | 1.22 0.60 down from 2019 | 66 | 33% | $2,712 | ||
23Apples - Journal of Applied Language StudiesOAUniversity of Jyväskylä · Finland | 1.96Q2 | 1.39 1.10 up from 2019 | 62 | 100% | — | ||
24ESP TodayOAUniversity of Belgrade Faculty of Economics · Serbia | 1.91Q2 | 0.96 0.06 up from 2019 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
25Technical Communication QuarterlyRoutledge · United States | 1.85Q2 | 1.90 0.90 up from 2019 | 88 | 5% | — | ||
26Computers & composition/Computers and compositionElsevier BV · United States | 1.79Q2 | 2.16 0.44 up from 2019 | 115 | 9% | $3,860 | ||
27The Australian Journal of Language and LiteracySpringer Nature · Singapore | 1.79Q2 | 1.31 0.37 up from 2019 | 51 | 43% | $3,190 | ||
28TESL Canada JournalOACanada | 1.73Q2 | 1.35 0.37 up from 2019 | 79 | 100% | — | ||
29Language Learning in Higher EducationDe Gruyter · Germany | 1.69Q2 | 0.69 0.62 down from 2019 | 70 | 44% | $2,712 | ||
30College Composition and CommunicationNational Council of Teachers of English · United States | 1.58Q2 | 1.00 0.55 up from 2019 | 116 | 0% | — | ||
31Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de las Lenguas ExtranjerasOARovira i Virgili University · Spain | 1.45Q3 | 2.02 1.33 up from 2019 | 83 | 100% | — | ||
32Language ArtsNational Council of Teachers of English · United States | 1.19Q3 | 1.05 0.29 up from 2019 | 172 | 0% | — | ||
33International Journal of Humanities and Arts ComputingEdinburgh University Press · United Kingdom | 1.12Q3 | 0.75 0.38 up from 2019 | 45 | 6% | — | ||
34Children s Literature in EducationSpringer Nature · United States | 1.12Q3 | 0.41 0.17 down from 2019 | 92 | 43% | $3,190 | ||
35EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and LanguagesOAE-JournALL · United States | 1.02Q3 | 1.36 0.70 up from 2019 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
36DELTA Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e AplicadaOAPontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo · Brazil | 1.01Q3 | 0.70 0.46 up from 2019 | 145 | 100% | — | ||
37The EuroCALL ReviewOATechnical University of Valencia · Spain | 0.98Q3 | 1.04 0.12 up from 2019 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
38Language and LiteracyOALanguage and Literacy Researchers of Canada · Canada | 0.98Q3 | 0.65 0.14 up from 2019 | 91 | 100% | — | ||
39Trabalhos em Linguística AplicadaOAUniversity of Campinas · Brazil | 0.90Q3 | 0.69 0.33 up from 2019 | 168 | 100% | — | ||
40English in EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.86Q3 | 0.66 0.37 down from 2019 | 143 | 23% | — | ||
41Journal of Folklore ResearchIndiana University Press · United States | 0.85Q3 | 0.62 0.14 up from 2019 | 37 | 6% | — | ||
42Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & LiteratureOAAutonomous University of Barcelona · Spain | 0.84Q3 | 0.33 0.05 down from 2019 | 76 | 100% | — | ||
43Scientific Study of LiteratureJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 0.83Q3 | 1.15 0.31 down from 2019 | 32 | 27% | — | ||
44Digital humanities quarterlyOAAlliance of Digital Humanities Organizations · United States | 0.50Q3 | 0.40 0.08 down from 2019 | 158 | 100% | — | ||
45HispaniaAmerican Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese · United States | 0.48Q3 | 0.18 0.07 down from 2019 | 466 | 1% | — | ||
46Linguagem em (Dis)cursoOAUniversidade do Sul de Santa Catarina · Brazil | 0.46Q4 | 0.33 0.13 up from 2019 | 100 | 100% | — | ||
47Human Ecology ReviewOAANU Press · Australia | 0.45Q4 | 0.69 0.31 down from 2019 | 56 | — | — | ||
48EliaOAEditorial Universidad de Sevilla · Spain | 0.41Q4 | 0.11 0.07 down from 2019 | 58 | 100% | — | ||
49Digital Studies / Le champ numériqueOAOpen Library of Humanities · Canada | 0.39Q4 | 0.65 0.15 up from 2019 | 47 | 100% | — | ||
50English Text ConstructionJohn Benjamins Publishing Company · Netherlands | 0.37Q4 | 0.39 0.01 down from 2019 | 46 | 18% | — |
Subfields of Arts and Humanities, with Literature and Literary Theory highlighted.
- Language and Linguistics153
- Philosophy92
- Archeology70
- Literature and Literary Theory60
- Music32
- History and Philosophy of Science27
- Conservation24
- Visual Arts and Performing Arts24
- Museology23
- History7
- Classics1
- General Arts and Humanities0
- Religious 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.
29 additional Literature and Literary Theory 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
- 60
- Window papers (baseline)
- 103,853 +7.0% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.51 +13.0% 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 | 28 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 30 | 31 | 35 | 35 | 37 | 36 | 39 | 41 | 43 | 46 | 50 | 55 | 56 | 59 | 62 | 63 | 60 | 64 | 73 | 73 | 76 | 72 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 39,152 | 41,293 | 44,360 | 47,693 | 50,568 | 53,724 | 56,806 | 60,437 | 65,031 | 69,362 | 74,882 | 79,853 | 84,459 | 87,431 | 89,177 | 91,543 | 94,470 | 97,026 | 99,068 | 101,727 | 103,853 | 106,881 | 106,516 | 103,525 | 100,705 | 102,959 | |
| Median OJR | 0.77 | 0.91 | 1.05 | 0.99 | 1.12 | 1.014 | 1.18 | 1.10 | 0.94 | 0.901 | 1.26 | 1.31 | 1.49 | 1.303 | 1.299 | 1.335 | 1.11 | 1.339 | 1.35 | 1.24 | 1.51 | 1.010 | 1.02 | 0.93 | 0.903 | 0.89 |
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.