Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2021
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2021
333 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 333 ranked journals in 2021. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.71 against 1.00, up 0.04 on 2020. A journal needs OJR 2.88 to reach Q1. The top three are International Security, Government Information Quarterly, and Contemporary Security Policy.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2021. 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 2018–2020, the window the 2021 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)
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 2020. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2018–2020, the window the 2021 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2018–2020 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 2012 to 2021. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 13.60Q1 | 11.94 2.90 up from 2020 | 77 | 42% | — | ||
2Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 11.84Q1 | 13.35 3.09 up from 2020 | 211 | 52% | $4,360 | ||
3Contemporary Security PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 10.41Q1 | 12.83 10.13 up from 2020 | 77 | 58% | — | ||
4American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 9.66Q1 | 8.88 0.59 down from 2020 | 267 | 62% | $3,550 | ||
5Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 9.48Q1 | 14.19 8.83 up from 2020 | 85 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
6European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 8.75Q1 | 7.17 1.23 up from 2020 | 170 | 73% | $3,550 | ||
7Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 8.69Q1 | 6.27 0.30 up from 2020 | 210 | 21% | — | ||
8American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 8.41Q1 | 6.50 2.15 down from 2020 | 231 | 33% | $4,100 | ||
9South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.39Q1 | 3.36 2.88 down from 2020 | 77 | 46% | — | ||
10Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.07Q1 | 5.93 2.45 down from 2020 | 301 | 71% | — | ||
11West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.99Q1 | 5.29 0.35 up from 2020 | 217 | 89% | — | ||
12Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.82Q1 | 6.03 0.25 down from 2020 | 197 | 49% | $3,900 | ||
13International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.43Q1 | 5.22 0.16 down from 2020 | 746 | 25% | $4,936 | ||
14Policy & InternetWiley · United States | 6.17Q1 | 6.31 0.16 up from 2020 | 66 | 54% | $3,570 | ||
15DemocratizationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.12Q1 | 6.02 1.00 up from 2020 | 236 | 38% | — | ||
16East European PoliticsRoutledge · United Kingdom | 5.91Q1 | 4.03 0.32 down from 2020 | 111 | 32% | — | ||
17Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 5.84Q1 | 6.84 0.85 down from 2020 | 164 | 56% | $3,550 | ||
18The Chinese Journal of International PoliticsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 5.64Q1 | 4.24 0.08 up from 2020 | 61 | 36% | $3,981 | ||
19Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.59Q1 | 4.87 2.47 down from 2020 | 205 | 47% | $2,990 | ||
20Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 5.55Q1 | 5.65 1.46 down from 2020 | 142 | 35% | $3,969 | ||
21Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 5.52Q1 | 4.28 0.79 up from 2020 | 218 | 71% | — | ||
22Policy Design and PracticeOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.44Q1 | 9.97 4.86 up from 2020 | 83 | 100% | — | ||
23British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 5.42Q1 | 4.62 0.24 down from 2020 | 219 | 63% | $3,550 | ||
24Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.42Q1 | 5.68 1.44 up from 2020 | 400 | 61% | $2,290 | ||
25Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.36Q1 | 3.59 0.06 down from 2020 | 216 | 42% | $3,650 | ||
26Policy Reviews in Higher EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.24Q1 | 4.48 2.02 up from 2020 | 33 | 67% | — | ||
27Security StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.12Q1 | 4.24 0.91 up from 2020 | 102 | 16% | — | ||
28Journal of Eurasian StudiesOASAGE Publishing · Netherlands | 5.11Q1 | 2.17 1.11 down from 2020 | 47 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
29Police QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 4.97Q1 | 3.19 1.14 down from 2020 | 65 | 23% | $3,650 | ||
30Policy SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.91Q1 | 5.68 0.64 up from 2020 | 127 | 68% | $3,190 | ||
31The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 4.77Q1 | 3.91 1.44 down from 2020 | 475 | 25% | — | ||
32European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.68Q1 | 3.86 0.64 down from 2020 | 126 | 70% | $3,900 | ||
33Hague Journal on the Rule of LawSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.35Q1 | 1.36 0.11 up from 2020 | 78 | 76% | $2,590 | ||
34Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea StudiesRoutledge · United Kingdom | 4.34Q1 | 3.14 0.65 up from 2020 | 100 | 20% | — | ||
35European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 3.48 2.09 down from 2020 | 100 | 62% | $3,650 | ||
36Policy Studies JournalWiley · United States | 4.29Q1 | 6.32 1.26 up from 2020 | 147 | 24% | $4,050 | ||
37Journal of Contemporary ChinaRoutledge · United States | 4.27Q1 | 2.87 0.38 down from 2020 | 193 | 12% | — | ||
38Swiss Political Science ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 2.90 0.64 down from 2020 | 87 | 65% | $3,140 | ||
39Political Research ExchangeOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 3.78 2.28 up from 2020 | 32 | 100% | $461 | ||
40Political Studies ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.13Q1 | 3.32 0.09 up from 2020 | 131 | 52% | $3,650 | ||
41Journal of Contemporary East Asia StudiesOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.12Q1 | 1.81 0.83 down from 2020 | 36 | 100% | $1,533 | ||
42Political Research QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 4.02Q1 | 3.59 0.52 up from 2020 | 270 | 25% | $3,650 | ||
43Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.99Q1 | 4.01 0.46 down from 2020 | 190 | 68% | $3,650 | ||
44JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 3.98Q1 | 3.25 1.58 down from 2020 | 292 | 58% | $4,170 | ||
45Comparative EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.97Q1 | 3.46 0.91 up from 2020 | 117 | 30% | — | ||
46International Political Science ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.96Q1 | 3.04 0.62 up from 2020 | 157 | 53% | $3,650 | ||
47Cambridge Review of International AffairsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.95Q1 | 3.21 0.37 up from 2020 | 195 | 27% | — | ||
48Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.93Q1 | 2.72 1.23 up from 2020 | 80 | 43% | $4,030 | ||
49Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.91Q1 | 3.23 0.13 up from 2020 | 299 | 41% | $2,840 | ||
50Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.91Q1 | 3.50 0.03 up from 2020 | 187 | 44% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,377
- Education762
- Political Science and International Relations333
- Communication75
- Gender Studies64
- Safety Research57
- Health55
- Public Administration52
- Urban Studies51
- Transportation50
- Law48
- Linguistics and Language48
- Demography42
- Library and Information Sciences41
- Anthropology38
- Geography, Planning and Development33
- Cultural Studies7
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2021. Corpus-wide, 87.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
83 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 2018–2020, 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: 2021. Publication window: 2018–2020. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 333
- Window papers (baseline)
- 278,323 +12.3% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 1.71 -0.8% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2018–2020 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.