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
Urban Studies journal rankings 2020
52 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Urban Studies has 52 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR rose 0.06 on 2019 to 1.35, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.69. The top three are Environment and Urbanization, Urban Studies, and City Culture and Society.
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)
52 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Environment and UrbanizationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.73Q1 | 3.56no change | 115 | 65% | $3,650 | ||
2Urban StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.41Q1 | 4.53 0.98 up from 2019 | 524 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
3City Culture and SocietyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.36Q1 | 3.39 1.02 down from 2019 | 86 | 36% | $3,470 | ||
4International Journal of Urban and Regional ResearchWiley · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 2.79 0.24 down from 2019 | 377 | 36% | $4,150 | ||
5Progress in PlanningElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.12Q1 | 4.15 0.20 down from 2019 | 30 | 25% | $4,250 | ||
6European Planning StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.87Q1 | 3.68 0.01 down from 2019 | 437 | 42% | — | ||
7Urban GeographyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.78Q1 | 3.17 0.08 down from 2019 | 261 | 33% | — | ||
8Cultural TrendsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.12Q1 | 1.96 0.05 down from 2019 | 91 | 36% | — | ||
9CityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.09Q1 | 2.53 0.53 up from 2019 | 161 | 26% | — | ||
10International Journal of Cultural PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 3.02Q1 | 1.57 0.15 up from 2019 | 134 | 47% | — | ||
11Planning TheorySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.82Q1 | 2.63 0.54 up from 2019 | 65 | 35% | $3,650 | ||
12Urban Research & PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.70Q1 | 1.92 0.47 down from 2019 | 93 | 39% | — | ||
13Urban PlanningOACogitatio · Portugal | 2.69Q1 | 2.50 0.34 down from 2019 | 148 | 100% | $1,132 | ||
14Journal of Urban AffairsTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.34Q2 | 1.96 0.46 up from 2019 | 334 | 13% | — | ||
15Planning Theory & PracticeRoutledge · United Kingdom | 2.33Q2 | 2.20 0.05 up from 2019 | 132 | 62% | — | ||
16Creative Industries JournalTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.14Q2 | 1.59 0.35 down from 2019 | 64 | 39% | — | ||
17Urban Policy and ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.11Q2 | 3.00 0.46 up from 2019 | 97 | 33% | — | ||
18International Planning StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.07Q2 | 1.91 0.59 up from 2019 | 91 | 63% | — | ||
19Artivate A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the ArtsOAUniversity of Arkansas Press · United States | 1.73Q2 | 0.96 0.41 down from 2019 | 35 | 100% | — | ||
20Planning PerspectivesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.68Q2 | 0.85 0.24 up from 2019 | 273 | 21% | — | ||
21Town Planning ReviewLiverpool University Press · United Kingdom | 1.65Q2 | 1.58 0.45 up from 2019 | 122 | 24% | — | ||
22Journal of Urban DesignTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.62Q2 | 2.48 0.71 up from 2019 | 159 | 40% | — | ||
23Planning Practice and ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.60Q2 | 1.46 0.46 up from 2019 | 98 | 33% | — | ||
24The Journal of Arts Management Law and SocietyRoutledge · United States | 1.48Q2 | 1.00 0.14 up from 2019 | 86 | 14% | — | ||
25City Territory and ArchitectureOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.44Q2 | 2.63 1.38 up from 2019 | 50 | 100% | $1,140 | ||
26International Journal of Urban Sustainable DevelopmentOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.37Q2 | 2.41 1.32 up from 2019 | 66 | 83% | $1,270 | ||
27GeoScapeOADe Gruyter Open · Czechia | 1.33Q3 | 1.58 0.10 down from 2019 | 35 | 100% | — | ||
28UrbanisationSAGE Publishing · India | 1.29Q3 | 1.13 0.73 down from 2019 | 30 | 32% | $3,400 | ||
29Journal of Urbanism International Research on Placemaking and Urban SustainabilityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.17Q3 | 1.76 0.22 up from 2019 | 72 | 37% | — | ||
30Arts and the MarketEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.14Q3 | 1.00 0.04 up from 2019 | 44 | 31% | — | ||
31Canadian Journal of Urban ResearchOAUniversity of Winnipeg · Canada | 1.03Q3 | 1.06 0.18 down from 2019 | 45 | 100% | — | ||
32Built EnvironmentAlexandrine Press · United Kingdom | 0.95Q3 | 0.70 0.10 down from 2019 | 126 | 20% | — | ||
| 0.90Q3 | 0.92 0.58 up from 2019 | 71 | 100% | — | |||
34disP - The Planning ReviewTaylor & Francis · Switzerland | 0.72Q3 | 1.04 0.41 up from 2019 | 215 | 29% | — | ||
35Home CulturesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.69Q3 | 0.22 0.38 down from 2019 | 37 | 38% | — | ||
36urbe Revista Brasileira de Gestão UrbanaOAEditora Universitária Champagnat · Brazil | 0.57Q3 | 0.74 0.06 up from 2019 | 207 | 100% | — | ||
37Revue de la régulationOAUMR ESPACE et UMR LISST · France | 0.56Q3 | 0.24 0.30 down from 2019 | 125 | 100% | — | ||
38METU Journal of the Faculty of ArchitectureOAMiddle East Technical University · Türkiye | 0.52Q3 | 0.47 0.15 up from 2019 | 71 | 100% | — | ||
39ACE Arquitectura Ciudad y EntornoOAUniversitat Politècnica de Catalunya · Spain | 0.51Q3 | 0.73 0.13 up from 2019 | 121 | 100% | $215 | ||
40CiudadesOAUniversity of Valladolid · Spain | 0.48Q4 | 0.24 0.08 up from 2019 | 286 | 100% | — | ||
| 0.47Q4 | 0.57 0.12 up from 2019 | 93 | 97% | — | |||
42Canadian journal of nonprofit and social economy researchOACanadian Institute for Studies in Publishing · Canada | 0.47Q4 | 0.53 0.01 up from 2019 | 43 | 100% | — | ||
43Journal of Settlements and Spatial PlanningOABabeș-Bolyai University · Romania | 0.45Q4 | 0.51 0.33 down from 2019 | 50 | 100% | — | ||
44Urban and Regional PlanningOAScience Publishing Group · United States | 0.36Q4 | 0.47 0.37 up from 2019 | 38 | 100% | — | ||
45The Journal of Public SpaceOAItaly | 0.30Q4 | 0.45 0.07 up from 2019 | 147 | 100% | — | ||
46Interventions économiquesOAAssociation d'Economie Politique · Canada | 0.30Q4 | 0.33 0.09 up from 2019 | 107 | 100% | — | ||
47Journal of Contemporary Urban AffairsOATürkiye | 0.28Q4 | 0.40 0.21 up from 2019 | 122 | 100% | — | ||
48Journal of Urban Cultural StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.25Q4 | 0.16 0.03 down from 2019 | 62 | 6% | — | ||
49The International Journal of the Constructed EnvironmentPublisher not listed | 0.18Q4 | 0.25 0.25 up from 2019 | 38 | 0% | — | ||
50Espaço AbertoOAFederal University of Rio de Janeiro · Brazil | 0.15Q4 | 0.08no change | 65 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Urban Studies 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.
8 additional Urban Studies 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
- 52
- Window papers (baseline)
- 46,762 +3.3% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.35 -13.0% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 1
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 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 21 | 22 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 32 | 33 | 36 | 39 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 45 | 49 | 48 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 52 | 54 | 54 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 9,544 | 10,546 | 11,877 | 13,661 | 14,897 | 16,530 | 18,459 | 20,675 | 23,074 | 25,732 | 29,123 | 31,719 | 34,195 | 36,417 | 38,956 | 41,579 | 43,576 | 45,247 | 45,810 | 46,256 | 46,762 | 48,167 | 49,005 | 47,868 | 45,852 | 46,221 | |
| Median OJR | 1.322 | 1.24 | 1.41 | 1.320 | 1.497 | 1.83 | 1.95 | 1.74 | 1.77 | 2.07 | 2.14 | 2.29 | 2.04 | 1.505 | 1.80 | 1.88 | 1.63 | 1.55 | 1.42 | 1.29 | 1.35 | 1.08 | 1.17 | 0.88 | 0.84 | 0.98 |
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.