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
Public Administration journal rankings 2020
51 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Public Administration has 51 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR fell 0.10 on 2019 to 1.36, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.20. The top three are Public Management Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Public Administration.
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)
51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Public Management ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.00Q1 | 5.14 0.76 up from 2019 | 284 | 38% | — | ||
2Journal of Public Administration Research and TheoryOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.98Q1 | 4.88 1.75 up from 2019 | 165 | 47% | $4,029 | ||
3Public AdministrationWiley · United Kingdom | 3.90Q1 | 4.77 1.81 up from 2019 | 236 | 48% | $3,950 | ||
4Perspectives on Public Management and GovernanceOxford University Press · United States | 3.89Q1 | 3.70 0.64 down from 2019 | 62 | 21% | $4,029 | ||
5Public Administration ReviewWiley · United States | 3.43Q1 | 4.24 1.39 up from 2019 | 335 | 44% | $4,250 | ||
6The American Review of Public AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United States | 3.13Q1 | 3.46 1.60 up from 2019 | 124 | 47% | $3,900 | ||
7Public Policy and AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.94Q1 | 3.20 1.44 up from 2019 | 92 | 39% | $3,650 | ||
8International Review of Administrative SciencesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.71Q1 | 2.85 0.40 up from 2019 | 134 | 39% | $3,650 | ||
9International Public Management JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.63Q1 | 3.08 1.12 up from 2019 | 93 | 40% | — | ||
10British Journal of Industrial RelationsWiley · United Kingdom | 2.47Q1 | 2.22 0.91 down from 2019 | 106 | 51% | $3,860 | ||
11Public Performance & Management ReviewTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.28Q1 | 2.82 0.58 up from 2019 | 149 | 15% | — | ||
12Journal of Behavioral Public AdministrationOAUnited States | 2.25Q1 | 2.69 0.58 down from 2019 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
13Journal of Industrial RelationsSAGE Publishing · Australia | 2.20Q1 | 2.04 0.20 down from 2019 | 126 | 26% | $3,650 | ||
14Administration & SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.17Q2 | 2.05 0.30 up from 2019 | 102 | 29% | $3,650 | ||
15International Journal of Public Sector ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.16Q2 | 2.33 0.22 up from 2019 | 148 | 26% | — | ||
16Comparative labor law & policy journalCambridge University Press · United States | 2.12Q2 | 0.97 0.03 down from 2019 | 47 | 0% | — | ||
17European Journal of Industrial RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.09Q2 | 2.56 0.46 down from 2019 | 87 | 48% | $3,650 | ||
18Industrial Relations A Journal of Economy and SocietyWiley · United States | 2.02Q2 | 2.89 1.34 up from 2019 | 63 | 46% | $3,470 | ||
19Financial Accountability and ManagementWiley · United Kingdom | 1.93Q2 | 2.19 0.03 down from 2019 | 89 | 57% | $2,900 | ||
20Industrial Relations JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 1.91Q2 | 2.37 0.19 down from 2019 | 90 | 59% | $2,900 | ||
21Social WorkOxford University Press · United States | 1.79Q2 | 2.09 0.62 up from 2019 | 150 | 11% | — | ||
22Public Money & ManagementTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.73Q2 | 2.14 0.44 up from 2019 | 290 | 36% | — | ||
23Journal of Progressive Human ServicesTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.52Q2 | 1.09 0.11 up from 2019 | 47 | 8% | — | ||
24Social Work ResearchOxford University Press · United States | 1.43Q2 | 1.53 0.19 up from 2019 | 83 | 3% | — | ||
25Economic and Industrial DemocracySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.37Q2 | 2.00 0.33 up from 2019 | 140 | 63% | $3,650 | ||
26Asia Pacific Journal of Public AdministrationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.36Q2 | 1.09 0.76 down from 2019 | 69 | 13% | — | ||
27Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.30Q3 | 1.93 0.67 up from 2019 | 96 | 20% | — | ||
28Journal of Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.27Q3 | 1.86 1.03 up from 2019 | 109 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
29European Journal of Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.22Q3 | 1.89 0.57 up from 2019 | 270 | 33% | — | ||
30Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting & Financial ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.20Q3 | 1.74 1.03 up from 2019 | 75 | 36% | — | ||
31Australian Social WorkTaylor & Francis · Australia | 1.17Q3 | 1.73 0.04 down from 2019 | 200 | 27% | — | ||
32Journal of Social Work EducationTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.09Q3 | 1.22 0.52 down from 2019 | 299 | 14% | — | ||
33Social Work EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.08Q3 | 1.46 0.29 up from 2019 | 324 | 16% | — | ||
34The British Journal of Social WorkOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.01Q3 | 1.38 0.07 down from 2019 | 457 | 30% | $4,492 | ||
35Qualitative Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.01Q3 | 1.11 0.03 up from 2019 | 137 | 59% | $3,650 | ||
36International Social WorkSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.01Q3 | 1.35 0.45 up from 2019 | 254 | 51% | $3,650 | ||
37Canadian Public AdministrationWiley · United Kingdom | 0.92Q3 | 0.98 0.02 up from 2019 | 117 | 25% | $2,900 | ||
38Journal of Teaching in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.91Q3 | 1.07 0.07 up from 2019 | 108 | 5% | — | ||
39Labor Studies JournalSAGE Publishing · United States | 0.86Q3 | 0.96 0.32 up from 2019 | 74 | 7% | $3,400 | ||
40Advances in Social WorkOAIndiana University School of Social Work · United States | 0.80Q4 | 1.17 0.27 up from 2019 | 124 | 100% | — | ||
41Teaching Public AdministrationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.73Q4 | 1.00 0.22 down from 2019 | 62 | 34% | $3,650 | ||
42Chinese Public Administration ReviewOAUnited States | 0.71Q4 | 0.44 0.21 down from 2019 | 34 | 100% | $3,650 | ||
43Journal of Social Work PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.70Q4 | 0.99 0.03 down from 2019 | 145 | 19% | — | ||
44PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.60Q4 | 0.79 0.14 down from 2019 | 73 | 35% | — | ||
45Social Work With GroupsTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.44Q4 | 0.57 0.14 down from 2019 | 105 | 10% | — | ||
46Journal of Baccalaureate Social WorkUnited States | 0.43Q4 | 0.51 0.06 up from 2019 | 98 | 4% | — | ||
47China Journal of Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.33Q4 | 0.44 0.03 down from 2019 | 51 | 19% | — | ||
48The Journal of Sociology & Social WelfareWestern Michigan University · United States | 0.30Q4 | 0.34 0.03 up from 2019 | 205 | 69% | — | ||
49Smith College Studies in Social WorkTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.25Q4 | 0.56 0.24 up from 2019 | 65 | 12% | — | ||
50Contemporary Rural Social Work JournalUnited States | 0.19Q4 | 0.15 0.11 down from 2019 | 38 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Public Administration 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.
5 additional Public Administration 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
- 51
- Window papers (baseline)
- 9,356 -8.8% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.36 +9.5% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 6
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 | 39 | 39 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 46 | 45 | 46 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 51 | 49 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 5,291 | 5,454 | 5,737 | 6,096 | 6,309 | 6,459 | 7,069 | 7,550 | 8,059 | 8,152 | 8,390 | 8,538 | 8,687 | 9,064 | 9,283 | 9,721 | 9,886 | 10,257 | 9,866 | 9,630 | 9,356 | 9,519 | 9,597 | 9,348 | 9,065 | 8,961 | |
| Median OJR | 1.23 | 1.03 | 0.94 | 0.79 | 0.80 | 0.87 | 1.04 | 0.93 | 1.20 | 1.07 | 1.3317 | 1.51 | 1.41 | 1.21 | 1.239 | 1.48 | 1.3324 | 1.243 | 1.192 | 1.46 | 1.36 | 1.34 | 1.22 | 1.18 | 1.189 | 1.37 |
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.