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
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2020
332 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 332 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR fell 0.18 on 2019 to 1.67, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 3.25. The top three are International Security, American Political Science Review, and Journal of European Public Policy.
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)
332 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 14.14Q1 | 9.04 3.33 up from 2019 | 80 | 43% | — | ||
2American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 13.42Q1 | 9.47 0.97 up from 2019 | 239 | 36% | $3,550 | ||
3Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 12.96Q1 | 8.38 1.63 up from 2019 | 296 | 67% | — | ||
4American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 11.96Q1 | 8.64 0.47 up from 2019 | 190 | 34% | $4,100 | ||
5Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 11.39Q1 | 5.97 0.73 up from 2019 | 218 | 22% | — | ||
6Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 10.83Q1 | 10.26 2.25 up from 2019 | 209 | 54% | $4,360 | ||
7Swiss Political Science ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 9.98Q1 | 3.54 1.21 down from 2019 | 84 | 73% | $3,140 | ||
8European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 9.45Q1 | 5.94 0.93 up from 2019 | 181 | 73% | $3,550 | ||
9European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.70Q1 | 5.57 0.92 up from 2019 | 105 | 69% | $3,650 | ||
10Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.61Q1 | 6.28 0.29 up from 2019 | 185 | 62% | $3,900 | ||
11Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 8.42Q1 | 7.34 3.16 up from 2019 | 193 | 35% | $2,990 | ||
12European Law JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 7.96Q1 | 3.55 1.14 up from 2019 | 112 | 42% | $3,570 | ||
13JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 7.94Q1 | 4.83 0.18 up from 2019 | 306 | 44% | $4,170 | ||
14The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 7.83Q1 | 5.35 0.41 up from 2019 | 433 | 20% | — | ||
15West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.79Q1 | 4.94 0.81 up from 2019 | 248 | 72% | — | ||
16South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.62Q1 | 6.24 0.41 up from 2019 | 67 | 44% | — | ||
17European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.24Q1 | 4.50 1.06 down from 2019 | 127 | 63% | $3,900 | ||
18British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 7.08Q1 | 4.85 0.12 up from 2019 | 225 | 52% | $3,550 | ||
19Security StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.05Q1 | 3.33 0.96 down from 2019 | 84 | 11% | — | ||
20International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.68Q1 | 5.39 1.70 up from 2019 | 789 | 15% | $4,936 | ||
21Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.62Q1 | 3.65 0.73 up from 2019 | 214 | 38% | $3,650 | ||
22Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 6.57Q1 | 7.69 3.27 up from 2019 | 155 | 59% | $3,550 | ||
23The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.44Q1 | 3.68 0.96 down from 2019 | 140 | 54% | $3,650 | ||
24East European PoliticsRoutledge · United Kingdom | 6.32Q1 | 4.35 1.30 up from 2019 | 97 | 35% | — | ||
25Policy & InternetWiley · United States | 5.82Q1 | 6.15 1.53 up from 2019 | 72 | 71% | $3,570 | ||
26Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.74Q1 | 5.36 0.32 up from 2019 | 109 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
27Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.71Q1 | 4.48 1.05 up from 2019 | 194 | 67% | $3,650 | ||
28Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.67Q1 | 3.46 0.29 up from 2019 | 198 | 38% | — | ||
29Police QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 5.63Q1 | 4.33 1.81 up from 2019 | 61 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
30DemocratizationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.54Q1 | 5.02 2.48 up from 2019 | 204 | 24% | — | ||
31The Chinese Journal of International PoliticsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 5.43Q1 | 4.15 1.77 up from 2019 | 54 | 35% | $3,981 | ||
32Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 5.40Q1 | 3.49 1.20 up from 2019 | 196 | 52% | — | ||
33American Politics ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.26Q1 | 2.63 0.59 down from 2019 | 151 | 11% | $3,650 | ||
34Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.25Q1 | 4.25 0.06 up from 2019 | 355 | 53% | $2,290 | ||
35Policy & PoliticsPolicy Press · United Kingdom | 5.23Q1 | 4.58no change | 107 | 50% | — | ||
36Journal of Eurasian StudiesOASAGE Publishing · Netherlands | 5.22Q1 | 3.29 0.01 up from 2019 | 41 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
37Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 5.14Q1 | 7.11 3.75 up from 2019 | 153 | 23% | $3,969 | ||
38Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 5.14Q1 | 3.00 0.95 up from 2019 | 108 | 30% | $3,290 | ||
39Policy Design and PracticeOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.12Q1 | 5.10 2.34 up from 2019 | 49 | 100% | — | ||
40Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.94Q1 | 3.10 0.79 up from 2019 | 259 | 38% | $2,840 | ||
41Policy SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.93Q1 | 5.05 1.48 up from 2019 | 115 | 42% | $3,190 | ||
42Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 1.49 0.78 down from 2019 | 91 | 43% | $4,030 | ||
43International Relations of the Asia-PacificOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 4.83Q1 | 3.39 0.75 up from 2019 | 84 | 4% | $3,571 | ||
44Political Research QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 4.78Q1 | 3.08 0.40 up from 2019 | 272 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
45International TheoryOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.77Q1 | 2.93 0.40 down from 2019 | 69 | 40% | $3,550 | ||
46GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom | 4.75Q1 | 3.68 0.25 down from 2019 | 129 | 37% | $3,730 | ||
47Policy Studies JournalWiley · United States | 4.65Q1 | 5.06 0.59 up from 2019 | 154 | 38% | $4,050 | ||
48Eurasian Geography and EconomicsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.62Q1 | 3.23 0.39 down from 2019 | 94 | 18% | — | ||
49Studies in Comparative International DevelopmentSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 4.61Q1 | 4.19 1.24 up from 2019 | 53 | 25% | $3,390 | ||
50Quarterly Journal of Political ScienceNow Publishers · United States | 4.60Q1 | 2.85 0.70 down from 2019 | 54 | 11% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations 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.
81 additional Political Science and International Relations 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
- 332
- Window papers (baseline)
- 262,579 +6.8% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.67 -10.7% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
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 | 185 | 187 | 198 | 211 | 222 | 236 | 243 | 248 | 255 | 260 | 270 | 279 | 287 | 287 | 294 | 301 | 308 | 318 | 321 | 326 | 332 | 333 | 339 | 334 | 334 | 322 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 87,090 | 92,551 | 99,427 | 106,761 | 113,825 | 122,173 | 130,947 | 139,764 | 148,869 | 159,463 | 170,900 | 180,910 | 191,534 | 201,200 | 210,369 | 223,416 | 235,982 | 245,820 | 247,938 | 251,957 | 262,579 | 278,323 | 289,523 | 291,064 | 289,519 | 294,162 | |
| Median OJR | 0.81 | 0.99 | 0.90 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.31 | 1.27 | 1.42 | 1.603 | 1.68 | 1.77 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 1.78 | 1.69 | 1.83 | 1.92 | 1.87 | 1.723 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.71 | 1.602 | 1.63 | 1.52 | 1.718 |
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.