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
Social Psychology journal rankings 2021
197 ranked journals · Subfield in Psychology
Social Psychology has 197 ranked journals in 2021. The median OJR fell 0.06 on 2020 to 0.92, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.51. The top three are Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and International Journal of Transgenderism.
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 Psychology (7)
197 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Perspectives on Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.37Q1 | 14.91 0.56 up from 2020 | 251 | 53% | $3,900 | ||
2Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.65Q1 | 8.82 0.78 down from 2020 | 401 | 28% | — | ||
3International Journal of TransgenderismTaylor & Francis · Germany | 3.19Q1 | 8.30 2.73 up from 2020 | 60 | — | — | ||
4Emotion ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.86Q1 | 7.06 2.41 up from 2020 | 97 | 60% | $3,900 | ||
5Review of General PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 2.63Q1 | 5.31 0.60 down from 2020 | 92 | 39% | $3,900 | ||
6International Journal of Human-Computer InteractionTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.61Q1 | 5.80 1.35 up from 2020 | 376 | 26% | — | ||
7Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological SciencesRoyal Society · United Kingdom | 2.57Q1 | 7.30 0.52 up from 2020 | 1,295 | 97% | — | ||
8Journal of Happiness StudiesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.47Q1 | 5.51 1.89 up from 2020 | 373 | 51% | $3,490 | ||
9Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender DiversityAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 2.46Q1 | 3.29 1.47 down from 2020 | 148 | 21% | — | ||
9Journal of Counseling PsychologyAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 2.46Q1 | 4.34 0.44 down from 2020 | 207 | 17% | — | ||
11ACM Transactions on Human-Robot InteractionAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 2.45Q1 | 5.85 2.29 up from 2020 | 76 | 86% | — | ||
12Social Psychology of EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.41Q1 | 3.59 0.74 up from 2020 | 166 | 49% | $3,290 | ||
13Transportation Research Part F Traffic Psychology and BehaviourElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.37Q1 | 5.53 0.83 up from 2020 | 821 | 41% | $2,780 | ||
14International Journal of Social RoboticsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.35Q1 | 5.73 0.87 up from 2020 | 247 | 61% | $4,190 | ||
15The Journal of Positive PsychologyRoutledge | 2.29Q1 | 4.78 1.29 up from 2020 | 239 | 26% | — | ||
16Leisure SciencesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.23Q1 | 4.46 2.43 up from 2020 | 221 | 21% | — | ||
17LGBT HealthMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 2.19Q1 | 5.64 0.32 up from 2020 | 167 | 54% | — | ||
18International Journal of Mental Health SystemsOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.06Q1 | 5.30 1.14 up from 2020 | 238 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
19Applied ErgonomicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.00Q1 | 4.25 0.32 down from 2020 | 650 | 42% | $3,400 | ||
20Motivation and EmotionSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.98Q1 | 5.29 1.62 up from 2020 | 190 | 45% | $3,190 | ||
21International Journal of Bullying PreventionSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.97Q1 | 4.07 1.14 up from 2020 | 78 | 46% | $3,290 | ||
22International Journal of WellbeingOAInternational Journal of Wellbeing · New Zealand | 1.97Q1 | 3.89 1.45 up from 2020 | 72 | 100% | — | ||
23IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine SystemsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 1.96Q1 | 4.62 0.39 up from 2020 | 192 | 50% | $2,645 | ||
24Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics SocietySAGE Publishing · United States | 1.95Q1 | 5.05 1.35 up from 2020 | 382 | 36% | $1,500 | ||
25Journal of Cross-Cultural PsychologySAGE Publishing · United States | 1.93Q1 | 2.56 0.98 down from 2020 | 191 | 45% | $3,650 | ||
26The Journal of PsychologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.93Q1 | 3.83 0.85 up from 2020 | 115 | 24% | — | ||
27Journal of Leisure ResearchTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.90Q1 | 3.69 1.12 up from 2020 | 106 | 18% | — | ||
28International Journal of Applied Positive PsychologySpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.89Q1 | 4.46 1.96 up from 2020 | 39 | 67% | $3,490 | ||
29Journal of Nonverbal BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.81Q1 | 4.65 1.18 up from 2020 | 74 | 30% | $3,290 | ||
30Group Dynamics Theory Research and PracticeAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.79Q1 | 4.54 3.77 up from 2020 | 56 | 10% | — | ||
31Transgender HealthMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.77Q1 | 3.80 0.68 down from 2020 | 151 | 100% | — | ||
32Cognition Technology & WorkSpringer Science+Business Media · United Kingdom | 1.71Q1 | 2.89 0.01 up from 2020 | 197 | 58% | $3,390 | ||
33Women & TherapyTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.69Q1 | 2.15 0.65 up from 2020 | 79 | 14% | — | ||
34Applied Research in Quality of LifeSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.68Q1 | 4.24 2.22 up from 2020 | 272 | 62% | $3,190 | ||
35Journal of School ViolenceTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.65Q1 | 2.90 0.02 up from 2020 | 97 | 10% | — | ||
36New Ideas in PsychologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.64Q1 | 3.26 0.39 up from 2020 | 122 | 18% | $3,600 | ||
37Child Indicators ResearchSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.61Q1 | 3.09 0.70 up from 2020 | 263 | 34% | $3,490 | ||
38International Journal of Educational PsychologyOAHipatia Press · Spain | 1.61Q1 | 2.18 0.88 down from 2020 | 44 | 100% | $431 | ||
39Revista de Psicodidáctica (English ed )Elsevier BV · Spain | 1.61Q1 | 2.65 0.38 up from 2020 | 54 | 18% | $3,740 | ||
40Motivation ScienceAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.60Q1 | 3.06 3.19 down from 2020 | 98 | 29% | — | ||
41Cross-Cultural ResearchSAGE Publishing · United States | 1.60Q1 | 2.44 0.53 up from 2020 | 48 | 35% | $3,650 | ||
42IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human FactorsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.59Q1 | 5.61 2.83 up from 2020 | 70 | 23% | — | ||
43Aggressive BehaviorWiley · United States | 1.58Q1 | 3.38 0.52 down from 2020 | 175 | 28% | $3,600 | ||
44Journal of College CounselingWiley · United States | 1.57Q1 | 2.64 1.15 up from 2020 | 71 | 8% | $2,500 | ||
45Psicologí a EducativaOAPublisher not listed | 1.57Q1 | 3.07 1.50 up from 2020 | 64 | 100% | — | ||
46Journal of Corporate Real EstateEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.55Q1 | 3.49 1.49 up from 2020 | 55 | 62% | — | ||
47Stigma and HealthAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.52Q1 | 3.89 2.17 up from 2020 | 116 | 32% | — | ||
48Communication EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.52Q1 | 2.16 0.17 down from 2020 | 147 | 0% | — | ||
49Psychology Public Policy and LawAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.52Q1 | 3.52 1.29 up from 2020 | 101 | 25% | — | ||
50The Professional CounselorOAUnited States | 1.51Q1 | 2.99 1.46 up from 2020 | 103 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Psychology, with Social Psychology highlighted.
- Clinical Psychology603
- Social Psychology197
- Developmental and Educational Psychology118
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology98
- Applied Psychology11
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology4
- General Psychology1
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.
57 additional Social Psychology 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
- 197
- Window papers (baseline)
- 112,687 +15.7% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.921 -8.5% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 6
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 | 101 | 109 | 116 | 119 | 121 | 122 | 124 | 127 | 136 | 140 | 151 | 156 | 159 | 163 | 173 | 184 | 183 | 188 | 193 | 191 | 199 | 197 | 201 | 196 | 188 | 190 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 28,066 | 30,845 | 33,076 | 35,905 | 37,696 | 40,350 | 42,722 | 46,442 | 50,784 | 56,475 | 61,672 | 67,696 | 72,356 | 76,793 | 80,841 | 85,396 | 90,662 | 94,142 | 97,395 | 100,160 | 105,268 | 112,687 | 120,908 | 126,957 | 130,021 | 137,461 | |
| Median OJR | 0.57 | 0.56 | 0.54 | 0.61 | 0.670 | 0.6778 | 0.673 | 0.64 | 0.6780 | 0.8596 | 0.8604 | 0.95 | 1.003 | 1.10 | 1.04 | 1.12 | 1.07 | 1.09 | 1.01 | 1.03 | 0.99 | 0.921 | 0.922 | 0.923 | 0.925 | 0.90 |
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.