Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2020
Social Sciences journal rankings 2020
6,367 ranked journals · Domain
Social Sciences has 6,367 ranked journals in 2020. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.16 against 1.00, down 0.02 on 2019. A journal needs OJR 2.10 to reach Q1. The top three are The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, and Academy of Management Annals.
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.
Fields in Social Sciences (6)
Up to All journals6,367 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1The Quarterly Journal of EconomicsOxford University Press · United States | 21.07Q1 | 18.99 1.34 up from 2019 | 122 | 50% | $7,619 | ||
2The Journal of Economic PerspectivesOAAmerican Economic Association · United States | 19.13Q1 | 12.93 7.15 down from 2019 | 144 | 100% | — | ||
3Academy of Management AnnalsRoutledge · United States | 18.21Q1 | 18.24 0.24 down from 2019 | 90 | 48% | — | ||
4Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological ScienceOASAGE Publishing · United States | 14.64Q1 | 26.33 9.29 up from 2019 | 72 | 92% | $2,000 | ||
5Social Issues and Policy ReviewWiley · United States | 14.16Q1 | 11.13 0.16 up from 2019 | 32 | 50% | $3,800 | ||
6International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 14.14Q1 | 9.04 3.33 up from 2019 | 80 | 43% | — | ||
7American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 13.42Q1 | 9.47 0.97 up from 2019 | 239 | 36% | $3,550 | ||
8Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 12.96Q1 | 8.38 1.63 up from 2019 | 296 | 67% | — | ||
9Research on Language and Social InteractionTaylor & Francis · United States | 12.87Q1 | 9.37 5.41 up from 2019 | 69 | 67% | — | ||
10American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.61Q1 | 14.57 3.77 up from 2019 | 130 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
11Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 12.26Q1 | 9.87 0.22 down from 2019 | 52 | 59% | $2,500 | ||
12Journal of International Business PolicyPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 12.06Q1 | 11.11 4.48 down from 2019 | 37 | 67% | $3,190 | ||
13American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 11.96Q1 | 8.64 0.47 up from 2019 | 190 | 34% | $4,100 | ||
14Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 11.39Q1 | 5.97 0.73 up from 2019 | 218 | 22% | — | ||
15Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 10.83Q1 | 10.26 2.25 up from 2019 | 209 | 54% | $4,360 | ||
16The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 10.60Q1 | 11.55 0.24 down from 2019 | 72 | 50% | $4,120 | ||
17Educational PsychologistRoutledge · United States | 10.41Q1 | 14.29 4.95 up from 2019 | 54 | 30% | — | ||
18International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.20Q1 | 16.34 3.98 up from 2019 | 453 | 43% | $3,990 | ||
19Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.00Q1 | 11.74 2.30 up from 2019 | 668 | 41% | $4,690 | ||
20The Journal of Strategic Information SystemsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.99Q1 | 14.02 6.61 up from 2019 | 72 | 52% | $4,160 | ||
21Swiss Political Science ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 9.98Q1 | 3.54 1.21 down from 2019 | 84 | 73% | $3,140 | ||
22Modern Language JournalWiley · United States | 9.73Q1 | 6.95 1.37 up from 2019 | 159 | 25% | $3,800 | ||
23Journal of Business VenturingElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.52Q1 | 12.73 4.13 up from 2019 | 165 | 37% | $4,130 | ||
24European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 9.45Q1 | 5.94 0.93 up from 2019 | 181 | 73% | $3,550 | ||
25American Economic ReviewAmerican Economic Association · United States | 9.45Q1 | 13.53 5.03 up from 2019 | 524 | 51% | — | ||
26Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 9.38Q1 | 4.85 0.33 down from 2019 | 293 | 100% | — | ||
27The Review of International OrganizationsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 9.37Q1 | 8.89 5.68 up from 2019 | 101 | 59% | $2,990 | ||
28Economic PolicyOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 9.35Q1 | 4.75 1.95 down from 2019 | 55 | 31% | $7,310 | ||
29Sociology of EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.28Q1 | 6.37 0.39 up from 2019 | 61 | 17% | $3,650 | ||
30Journal of Second Language WritingElsevier BV · United States | 9.22Q1 | 5.16 1.93 up from 2019 | 114 | 9% | $3,830 | ||
31Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.19Q1 | 9.58 0.46 up from 2019 | 98 | 48% | $5,400 | ||
32Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and SocietyOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 9.02Q1 | 6.21 1.09 down from 2019 | 88 | 40% | $4,494 | ||
33Psychological BulletinAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 8.85Q1 | 19.61 4.30 down from 2019 | 127 | 33% | — | ||
34European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.70Q1 | 5.57 0.92 up from 2019 | 105 | 69% | $3,650 | ||
35Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.61Q1 | 6.28 0.29 up from 2019 | 185 | 62% | $3,900 | ||
36Journal of Economic LiteratureAmerican Economic Association · United States | 8.61Q1 | 8.61 0.45 down from 2019 | 129 | 21% | — | ||
37California Management ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.58Q1 | 17.55 9.83 up from 2019 | 82 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
38International OrganizationUniversity of Cambridge · United States | 8.54Q1 | 8.22 1.00 down from 2019 | 129 | 55% | $3,550 | ||
39New Media & SocietySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.49Q1 | 9.47 2.71 up from 2019 | 433 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
40International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher EducationOASpringer Nature · Switzerland | 8.45Q1 | 10.81 2.87 up from 2019 | 133 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
41Journal of CommunicationOxford University Press · United States | 8.44Q1 | 8.27 0.27 up from 2019 | 192 | 39% | $4,235 | ||
42Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 8.42Q1 | 7.34 3.16 up from 2019 | 193 | 35% | $2,990 | ||
43Research & PoliticsOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.26Q1 | 6.73 3.06 up from 2019 | 149 | 100% | $800 | ||
44Journal of Innovation & KnowledgeOAElsevier BV · Spain | 8.15Q1 | 8.31 1.01 up from 2019 | 84 | 100% | $2,200 | ||
45The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.12Q1 | 7.71 3.12 up from 2019 | 78 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
46American Economic Journal Applied EconomicsAmerican Economic Association · United States | 8.03Q1 | 9.76 1.57 up from 2019 | 123 | 57% | — | ||
47Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.01Q1 | 9.16 0.06 down from 2019 | 117 | 100% | $2,000 | ||
48Perspectives on Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.97Q1 | 14.35 1.16 up from 2019 | 264 | 44% | $3,900 | ||
49Strategic Entrepreneurship JournalWiley · United States | 7.97Q1 | 5.30 2.46 down from 2019 | 82 | 41% | $4,100 | ||
50Journal of Destination Marketing & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.97Q1 | 8.21 1.64 up from 2019 | 195 | 37% | $4,320 |
Fields of Social Sciences, compared.
- Social Sciences3,056
- Psychology1,032
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance845
- Business, Management and Accounting736
- Arts and Humanities513
- Decision Sciences185
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.
1,733 additional Social Sciences 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
- 6,367
- Window papers (baseline)
- 3,489,326 +11.5% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.158 -1.9% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 301
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 | 2,933 | 3,074 | 3,257 | 3,421 | 3,551 | 3,684 | 3,847 | 4,034 | 4,222 | 4,411 | 4,638 | 4,858 | 5,103 | 5,326 | 5,550 | 5,769 | 5,975 | 6,155 | 6,251 | 6,310 | 6,367 | 6,458 | 6,516 | 6,519 | 6,456 | 6,382 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 973,082 | 1,101,576 | 1,187,966 | 1,289,835 | 1,324,068 | 1,431,668 | 1,541,994 | 1,678,086 | 1,825,065 | 1,985,403 | 2,148,912 | 2,303,999 | 2,468,040 | 2,603,480 | 2,734,303 | 2,869,634 | 3,018,278 | 3,128,445 | 3,209,329 | 3,319,936 | 3,489,326 | 3,755,807 | 4,010,665 | 4,149,019 | 4,247,103 | 4,426,831 | |
| Median OJR | 0.81 | 0.86 | 0.88 | 0.92 | 0.96 | 1.0001 | 1.063 | 1.14 | 1.196 | 1.22 | 1.242 | 1.25 | 1.26 | 1.241 | 1.236 | 1.204 | 1.179 | 1.181 | 1.165 | 1.183 | 1.158 | 1.09 | 1.067 | 1.057 | 1.065 | 1.08 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.6% | 4,027 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 1.605 per 1,000 | 3,404 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -2.2% | 5,924 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 56.3% | 6,382 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,390 | 2,626 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 20.9% | 5,817 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 6,382 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 1.12 | 6,330 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 42.6% | 6,382 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 49.1% | 6,369 journals |
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.