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
Sociology and Political Science journal rankings 2020
1,333 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Sociology and Political Science has 1,333 ranked journals in 2020. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.32 against 1.00, up 0.01 on 2019. A journal needs OJR 2.29 to reach Q1. The top three are Social Issues and Policy Review, American Sociological Review, and International Journal of Information Management.
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)
1,333 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Social Issues and Policy ReviewWiley · United States | 14.16Q1 | 11.13 0.16 up from 2019 | 32 | 50% | $3,800 | ||
2American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.61Q1 | 14.57 3.77 up from 2019 | 130 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
3International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.20Q1 | 16.34 3.98 up from 2019 | 453 | 43% | $3,990 | ||
4Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.00Q1 | 11.74 2.30 up from 2019 | 668 | 41% | $4,690 | ||
5Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 9.38Q1 | 4.85 0.33 down from 2019 | 293 | 100% | — | ||
6Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.19Q1 | 9.58 0.46 up from 2019 | 98 | 48% | $5,400 | ||
7New Media & SocietySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.49Q1 | 9.47 2.71 up from 2019 | 433 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
8Research & PoliticsOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.26Q1 | 6.73 3.06 up from 2019 | 149 | 100% | $800 | ||
9Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.01Q1 | 9.16 0.06 down from 2019 | 117 | 100% | $2,000 | ||
10Journal of Destination Marketing & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.97Q1 | 8.21 1.64 up from 2019 | 195 | 37% | $4,320 | ||
11Critical Discourse StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.81Q1 | 5.03 2.85 up from 2019 | 129 | 24% | — | ||
12Personality and Social Psychology ReviewSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.78Q1 | 17.92 0.59 up from 2019 | 38 | 40% | $3,900 | ||
13Information and OrganizationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.75Q1 | 10.22 3.87 up from 2019 | 52 | 20% | $3,590 | ||
14Business HorizonsElsevier BV · United States | 7.75Q1 | 9.69 3.30 up from 2019 | 266 | 23% | $3,410 | ||
15Journal of Travel ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.62Q1 | 7.33 0.30 up from 2019 | 267 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
16The Information SocietyTaylor & Francis · United States | 7.53Q1 | 4.79 3.64 down from 2019 | 92 | 22% | — | ||
17Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.35Q1 | 8.33 1.26 up from 2019 | 258 | 18% | $4,540 | ||
18Cultural AnthropologyOAWiley · United States | 7.20Q1 | 4.70 1.78 down from 2019 | 101 | 100% | — | ||
19Administrative Science QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.17Q1 | 7.53 1.38 up from 2019 | 123 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
20Journal of Peace ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.11Q1 | 6.58 1.25 up from 2019 | 199 | 34% | $3,900 | ||
21Information Communication & SocietyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.09Q1 | 7.16 1.88 up from 2019 | 385 | 35% | — | ||
22International Studies QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 7.08Q1 | 4.99 0.31 up from 2019 | 246 | 37% | $4,320 | ||
23International Journal of Qualitative MethodsOASAGE Publishing · United States | 7.03Q1 | 3.64 1.80 down from 2019 | 254 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
24Annals of Tourism ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.03Q1 | 7.19 1.66 up from 2019 | 392 | 51% | $4,060 | ||
25Environment and Planning D Society and SpaceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.99Q1 | 5.98 0.85 up from 2019 | 185 | 54% | $3,900 | ||
26Journal of Travel & Tourism MarketingTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.96Q1 | 7.97 3.00 up from 2019 | 200 | 31% | — | ||
27Political PsychologyWiley · United States | 6.92Q1 | 7.21 2.14 up from 2019 | 233 | 41% | $4,250 | ||
28Tourism Management PerspectivesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.85Q1 | 7.48 1.83 up from 2019 | 305 | 39% | $3,780 | ||
29Journal of Information TechnologySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.81Q1 | 5.48 1.26 down from 2019 | 49 | 38% | $3,900 | ||
30MIS QuarterlyMIS Quarterly · United States | 6.75Q1 | 7.05 0.50 down from 2019 | 208 | 22% | — | ||
31Journal of Interactive AdvertisingTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.65Q1 | 6.21 0.02 up from 2019 | 47 | 5% | — | ||
32Journal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationOAWiley · United States | 6.63Q1 | 7.49 0.67 up from 2019 | 71 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
33CriminologyWiley · United Kingdom | 6.62Q1 | 6.41 0.91 down from 2019 | 96 | 12% | $3,570 | ||
34Politics & SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 6.60Q1 | 4.16 1.21 down from 2019 | 68 | 29% | $3,650 | ||
35Internet ResearchEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 6.33Q1 | 6.84 0.03 up from 2019 | 222 | 14% | — | ||
36Computers in Human BehaviorElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.32Q1 | 9.29 1.90 up from 2019 | 1,542 | 36% | $3,780 | ||
37Discourse & SocietySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.30Q1 | 2.79 0.20 up from 2019 | 104 | 24% | $3,650 | ||
38Social Media + SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.26Q1 | 6.93 1.22 up from 2019 | 306 | 100% | $1,000 | ||
39Journal of Hospitality and Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Australia | 6.21Q1 | 7.73 2.66 up from 2019 | 193 | 22% | $3,400 | ||
40AntipodeWiley · United Kingdom | 6.03Q1 | 6.19 2.02 up from 2019 | 212 | 47% | $3,520 | ||
41Journal of Sustainable TourismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.03Q1 | 8.07 3.12 up from 2019 | 306 | 29% | — | ||
42Communication MonographsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.97Q1 | 4.24 2.09 down from 2019 | 76 | 14% | — | ||
43Journal of Applied PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 5.92Q1 | 6.96 1.61 down from 2019 | 298 | 16% | — | ||
44Telematics and InformaticsElsevier BV · United States | 5.91Q1 | 9.40 1.56 up from 2019 | 381 | 20% | $4,020 | ||
45Security DialogueSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.90Q1 | 5.06 0.06 down from 2019 | 99 | 49% | $3,650 | ||
46American Journal of SociologyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 5.87Q1 | 5.13 0.87 down from 2019 | 127 | 6% | — | ||
47Electronic Commerce Research and ApplicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.85Q1 | 7.38 0.46 up from 2019 | 211 | 19% | $3,210 | ||
48International Data Privacy LawOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 5.81Q1 | 3.14 0.16 down from 2019 | 79 | 54% | $4,850 | ||
49New Technology Work and EmploymentWiley · United Kingdom | 5.81Q1 | 6.14 0.20 up from 2019 | 60 | 45% | $3,980 | ||
50International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 5.72Q1 | 6.85 0.88 down from 2019 | 595 | 29% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Sociology and Political Science 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.
340 additional Sociology and Political Science 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
- 1,333
- Window papers (baseline)
- 498,577 +8.2% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.32 -1.1% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 56
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 | 588 | 615 | 642 | 679 | 716 | 742 | 776 | 826 | 861 | 899 | 960 | 1,005 | 1,049 | 1,090 | 1,140 | 1,184 | 1,233 | 1,300 | 1,315 | 1,325 | 1,333 | 1,377 | 1,389 | 1,403 | 1,402 | 1,388 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 127,769 | 139,962 | 155,545 | 173,690 | 189,148 | 206,415 | 224,690 | 248,047 | 274,644 | 301,558 | 326,495 | 347,409 | 369,647 | 386,451 | 401,728 | 420,106 | 443,739 | 460,936 | 466,601 | 478,291 | 498,577 | 539,978 | 579,161 | 604,240 | 617,692 | 634,590 | |
| Median OJR | 0.92 | 0.98 | 0.95 | 0.99 | 1.09 | 1.1344 | 1.27 | 1.34 | 1.380 | 1.3830 | 1.44 | 1.43 | 1.47 | 1.42 | 1.3831 | 1.35 | 1.3317 | 1.3322 | 1.28 | 1.31 | 1.32 | 1.22 | 1.17 | 1.14 | 1.11 | 1.1341 |
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.