Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2021
Social Sciences journal rankings 2021
3,141 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Social Sciences has 3,141 ranked journals in 2021. The median OJR fell 0.09 on 2020 to 1.23, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.23. The top three are International Security, International Journal of Information Management, and American Sociological Review.
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 in Social Sciences (22)
Up to Social Sciences3,141 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% | — | ||
2International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 13.00Q1 | 27.03 10.68 up from 2020 | 514 | 48% | $3,990 | ||
3American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 12.13Q1 | 18.22 3.65 up from 2020 | 128 | 35% | $3,900 | ||
4Tourism GeographiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 11.90Q1 | 16.04 12.01 up from 2020 | 225 | 29% | — | ||
5Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 11.84Q1 | 13.35 3.09 up from 2020 | 211 | 52% | $4,360 | ||
6Journal of Educational Technology SystemsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 11.08Q1 | 26.80 24.50 up from 2020 | 81 | 20% | $3,400 | ||
| 10.46Q1 | 14.80 13.07 up from 2020 | 47 | 100% | — | |||
8Contemporary Security PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 10.41Q1 | 12.83 10.13 up from 2020 | 77 | 58% | — | ||
9The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 10.10Q1 | 14.31 2.77 up from 2020 | 72 | 31% | $4,120 | ||
10International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher EducationOASpringer Nature · Switzerland | 9.84Q1 | 16.03 5.22 up from 2020 | 148 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
11Educational PsychologistRoutledge · United States | 9.78Q1 | 11.80 2.49 down from 2020 | 61 | 32% | — | ||
12American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 9.66Q1 | 8.88 0.59 down from 2020 | 267 | 62% | $3,550 | ||
13Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.52Q1 | 13.65 1.91 up from 2020 | 605 | 45% | $4,690 | ||
14Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 9.48Q1 | 14.19 8.83 up from 2020 | 85 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
15European Journal of Teacher EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.21Q1 | 10.96 7.77 up from 2020 | 190 | 53% | — | ||
16Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.20Q1 | 12.51 2.93 up from 2020 | 105 | 39% | $5,400 | ||
17Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 9.18Q1 | 12.31 2.45 up from 2020 | 45 | 31% | $2,500 | ||
18Pedagogical ResearchOALectito Journals · United Kingdom | 8.89Q1 | 17.08 16.08 up from 2020 | 75 | 100% | — | ||
19European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 8.75Q1 | 7.17 1.23 up from 2020 | 170 | 73% | $3,550 | ||
20Human Behavior and Emerging TechnologiesOAWiley · United States | 8.72Q1 | 16.87 10.99 up from 2020 | 111 | 56% | $840 | ||
21Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 8.69Q1 | 6.27 0.30 up from 2020 | 210 | 21% | — | ||
22Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social MediaOAPublisher not listed | 8.54Q1 | 5.16 0.31 up from 2020 | 267 | 100% | — | ||
23Information and OrganizationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 8.42Q1 | 8.97 1.26 down from 2020 | 47 | 60% | $3,590 | ||
24American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 8.41Q1 | 6.50 2.15 down from 2020 | 231 | 33% | $4,100 | ||
25Business HorizonsElsevier BV · United States | 8.17Q1 | 11.54 1.86 up from 2020 | 251 | 23% | $3,410 | ||
26Annals of Tourism ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.98Q1 | 11.76 4.57 up from 2020 | 502 | 61% | $4,060 | ||
27Journal of Sustainable TourismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.94Q1 | 13.19 5.13 up from 2020 | 438 | 40% | — | ||
28ProspectsSpringer Science+Business Media | 7.90Q1 | 13.20 12.58 up from 2020 | 85 | 84% | $3,190 | ||
29Secularism and NonreligionOAUbiquity Press · United Kingdom | 7.79Q1 | 0.89 0.58 down from 2020 | 30 | 100% | $490 | ||
30Computers & EducationElsevier BV · United States | 7.78Q1 | 17.33 4.38 up from 2020 | 680 | 34% | $5,190 | ||
31The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.63Q1 | 7.48 0.23 down from 2020 | 112 | 57% | $3,900 | ||
32The Review of International OrganizationsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 7.51Q1 | 8.23 0.66 down from 2020 | 107 | 60% | $2,990 | ||
33South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.39Q1 | 3.36 2.88 down from 2020 | 77 | 46% | — | ||
34Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.29Q1 | 10.43 2.09 up from 2020 | 283 | 22% | $4,540 | ||
35Progress in Human GeographySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.28Q1 | 7.82 1.05 up from 2020 | 195 | 61% | $3,900 | ||
36Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.13Q1 | 10.96 1.80 up from 2020 | 148 | 100% | $2,000 | ||
37Tourism Management PerspectivesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.08Q1 | 10.60 3.12 up from 2020 | 330 | 42% | $3,780 | ||
38School Leadership and ManagementRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.08Q1 | 10.05 5.43 up from 2020 | 78 | 58% | — | ||
39Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.07Q1 | 5.93 2.45 down from 2020 | 301 | 71% | — | ||
40West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.99Q1 | 5.29 0.35 up from 2020 | 217 | 89% | — | ||
41Journal of Interactive AdvertisingTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.98Q1 | 5.88 0.33 down from 2020 | 52 | 32% | — | ||
42Learning Media and TechnologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.97Q1 | 8.66 2.48 up from 2020 | 96 | 62% | — | ||
43Social Issues and Policy ReviewWiley · United States | 6.95Q1 | 12.29 1.17 up from 2020 | 34 | 33% | $3,800 | ||
44Political CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.83Q1 | 9.33 1.53 up from 2020 | 150 | 37% | — | ||
45Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.82Q1 | 6.03 0.25 down from 2020 | 197 | 49% | $3,900 | ||
46Journal of Research in Interactive MarketingEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 6.82Q1 | 13.30 6.80 up from 2020 | 72 | 17% | — | ||
47Sociology of EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.79Q1 | 7.46 1.10 up from 2020 | 61 | 36% | $3,650 | ||
48Science CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.77Q1 | 9.40 4.76 up from 2020 | 106 | 37% | $3,900 | ||
49Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.74Q1 | 8.77 2.09 up from 2020 | 186 | 30% | $2,500 | ||
50Telematics and InformaticsElsevier BV · United States | 6.74Q1 | 10.28 0.87 up from 2020 | 373 | 27% | $4,020 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, compared.
- 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.
735 additional Social Sciences 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
- 3,141
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,914,483 +19.6% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 1.23 -6.0% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 134Comparison-group list (134)
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 | 1,406 | 1,451 | 1,539 | 1,622 | 1,698 | 1,765 | 1,844 | 1,932 | 2,018 | 2,111 | 2,231 | 2,335 | 2,450 | 2,548 | 2,662 | 2,755 | 2,851 | 2,959 | 2,994 | 3,028 | 3,056 | 3,141 | 3,149 | 3,144 | 3,107 | 3,066 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 443,953 | 481,120 | 524,797 | 573,040 | 615,403 | 666,449 | 723,952 | 792,817 | 867,532 | 946,631 | 1,027,940 | 1,103,353 | 1,185,358 | 1,256,728 | 1,323,833 | 1,400,086 | 1,483,492 | 1,554,301 | 1,600,611 | 1,663,801 | 1,760,718 | 1,914,483 | 2,065,185 | 2,148,493 | 2,214,535 | 2,302,259 | |
| Median OJR | 0.86 | 0.91 | 0.92 | 0.97 | 1.03 | 1.09 | 1.16 | 1.30 | 1.365 | 1.382 | 1.43 | 1.42 | 1.40 | 1.377 | 1.356 | 1.352 | 1.353 | 1.346 | 1.31 | 1.33 | 1.32 | 1.23 | 1.194 | 1.187 | 1.18 | 1.20 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.7% | 1,882 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.498 per 1,000 | 1,610 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -2.6% | 2,852 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 58.5% | 3,066 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,400 | 1,164 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 18.2% | 2,785 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 3,066 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 1.22 | 3,041 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 44.4% | 3,066 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 49.7% | 3,059 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.