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
Music journal rankings 2020
32 ranked journals · Subfield in Arts and Humanities
Music has 32 ranked journals in 2020. The median journal has an OJR of 0.61, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2019; Q1 starts at OJR 1.92. The top three are Update Applications of Research in Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, and Music Education Research.
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)
32 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Update Applications of Research in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.51Q1 | 0.93 0.12 up from 2019 | 62 | 29% | $3,400 | ||
2Arts Education Policy ReviewTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.09Q1 | 1.38 0.52 down from 2019 | 63 | 8% | — | ||
3Music Education ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.78Q1 | 1.55 0.08 up from 2019 | 84 | 29% | — | ||
4Research Studies in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · Australia | 2.57Q1 | 1.52 0.20 up from 2019 | 76 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
5Action Criticism and Theory for Music EducationOAMayDay Group · United States | 2.38Q1 | 0.88 0.56 down from 2019 | 60 | 100% | — | ||
6Journal of Music Teacher EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 2.27Q1 | 0.87 0.07 down from 2019 | 67 | 22% | $3,400 | ||
7International Journal of Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.93Q1 | 1.06 0.07 down from 2019 | 120 | 18% | $3,650 | ||
8Journal of Popular Music EducationIntellect · United Kingdom | 1.92Q1 | 0.42 0.06 up from 2019 | 71 | 10% | — | ||
9British Journal of Music EducationCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.67Q2 | 0.80no change | 77 | 42% | $3,550 | ||
10Journal of Research in Music EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.54Q2 | 1.62 0.15 down from 2019 | 90 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
11Philosophy of Music Education ReviewIndiana University Press · United States | 1.46Q2 | 0.44 0.76 down from 2019 | 49 | 11% | — | ||
12Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music EducationUniversity of Illinois Press · United States | 1.18Q2 | 0.52 0.04 down from 2019 | 68 | 0% | — | ||
13Journal of Music Technology and EducationIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.80Q2 | 1.00 0.38 up from 2019 | 49 | 41% | — | ||
14Music Theory OnlineOASociety for Music Theory · United States | 0.78Q2 | 0.67 0.01 down from 2019 | 127 | 100% | — | ||
15Metal Music StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.71Q2 | 0.56 0.25 up from 2019 | 91 | 14% | — | ||
16International Journal of Community MusicIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.65Q2 | 0.60 0.32 up from 2019 | 70 | 32% | — | ||
17Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.57Q3 | 0.71 0.37 up from 2019 | 49 | 4% | — | ||
18Interactions Studies in Communication & CultureIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.48Q3 | 0.44 0.12 up from 2019 | 58 | 6% | — | ||
19Journal of World Popular MusicEquinox Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.41Q3 | 0.31 0.17 down from 2019 | 91 | 40% | — | ||
20Music Reference Services QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.37Q3 | 0.23 0.22 down from 2019 | 62 | 7% | — | ||
21Empirical Musicology ReviewOAThe Ohio State University Libraries · United States | 0.35Q3 | 0.83 1.35 down from 2019 | 65 | 100% | — | ||
22Voice and Speech ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.30Q3 | 0.72 0.33 up from 2019 | 102 | 7% | — | ||
| 0.27Q3 | 0.21 0.08 up from 2019 | 35 | 100% | — | |||
24Yearbook for Traditional MusicCambridge University Press · United States | 0.26Q3 | 0.22 0.10 up from 2019 | 94 | 8% | $3,450 | ||
25Journal of Music TheoryDuke University · United States | 0.21Q4 | 0.23 0.22 down from 2019 | 59 | 0% | — | ||
26Música HodieOAUniversidade Federal de Goiás · Brazil | 0.21Q4 | 0.24 0.01 down from 2019 | 79 | 100% | — | ||
27Journal of Mathematics and MusicTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.18Q4 | 0.77 0.01 up from 2019 | 42 | 54% | — | ||
28The American Journal of SemioticsPhilosophy Documentation Center · United States | 0.15Q4 | 0.15no change | 57 | 13% | — | ||
29DancecultOAGriffith University · United States | 0.15Q4 | 0.09 0.19 down from 2019 | 49 | 100% | — | ||
30Fontes artis musicaeUnited States | 0.08Q4 | 0.04 0.01 down from 2019 | 135 | 17% | — | ||
31EnviroLab AsiaOAClaremont Colleges Library · United States | 0.05Q4 | 0.13 0.06 down from 2019 | 38 | 100% | — | ||
32Perspectives of New MusicPerspectives of New Music · United States | 0.01Q4 | 0.00 0.03 down from 2019 | 153 | 3% | — |
Subfields of Arts and Humanities, with Music 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.
4 additional Music 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
- 32
- Window papers (baseline)
- 15,548 -3.9% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 0.61 +14.0% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 0
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 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 31 | 30 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 7,340 | 7,326 | 7,718 | 8,146 | 8,679 | 9,444 | 10,192 | 11,159 | 11,836 | 12,676 | 13,359 | 13,894 | 14,271 | 14,485 | 14,784 | 15,473 | 16,142 | 16,181 | 15,694 | 15,440 | 15,548 | 15,953 | 16,505 | 17,745 | 18,170 | 18,914 | |
| Median OJR | 0.616 | 0.27 | 0.73 | 0.44 | 0.58 | 0.573 | 0.3494 | 0.39 | 0.3493 | 0.50 | 0.5614 | 0.76 | 0.60 | 0.68 | 0.624 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.54 | 0.568 | 0.626 | 0.61 | 0.566 | 0.49 | 0.5609 | 0.42 | 0.629 |
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.