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
Urban Studies journal rankings 2021
51 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Urban Studies has 51 ranked journals in 2021. The median OJR fell 0.27 on 2020 to 1.08, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.20. The top three are Urban Studies, Cultural Trends, and European Planning Studies.
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)
51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Urban StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.26Q1 | 5.49 0.96 up from 2020 | 540 | 51% | $3,900 | ||
2Cultural TrendsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.95Q1 | 3.27 1.31 up from 2020 | 86 | 36% | — | ||
3European Planning StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.59Q1 | 4.62 0.94 up from 2020 | 424 | 45% | — | ||
4International Journal of Cultural PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 3.50Q1 | 2.09 0.52 up from 2020 | 150 | 32% | — | ||
5City Culture and SocietyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.50Q1 | 3.10 0.29 down from 2020 | 66 | 58% | $3,470 | ||
6Planning TheorySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.29Q1 | 2.91 0.28 up from 2020 | 68 | 19% | $3,650 | ||
7Urban GeographyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.15Q1 | 3.40 0.23 up from 2020 | 315 | 37% | — | ||
8International Journal of Urban and Regional ResearchWiley · United Kingdom | 3.04Q1 | 2.42 0.37 down from 2020 | 379 | 33% | $4,150 | ||
9Environment and UrbanizationSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.91Q1 | 5.30 1.74 up from 2020 | 119 | 65% | $3,650 | ||
10International Planning StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.58Q1 | 2.68 0.77 up from 2020 | 84 | 53% | — | ||
11Urban Research & PracticeTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.40Q1 | 2.82 0.90 up from 2020 | 99 | 33% | — | ||
12CityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.31Q1 | 2.08 0.45 down from 2020 | 166 | 39% | — | ||
13Planning Theory & PracticeRoutledge · United Kingdom | 2.20Q1 | 3.25 1.05 up from 2020 | 125 | 67% | — | ||
14Journal of Urban AffairsTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.03Q2 | 1.75 0.21 down from 2020 | 353 | 15% | — | ||
15Urban PlanningOACogitatio · Portugal | 1.86Q2 | 2.10 0.40 down from 2020 | 228 | 100% | $1,132 | ||
16Creative Industries JournalTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.86Q2 | 1.28 0.32 down from 2020 | 68 | 53% | — | ||
17International Journal of Urban Sustainable DevelopmentOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.84Q2 | 4.06 1.66 up from 2020 | 79 | 71% | $1,270 | ||
18Urban Policy and ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.69Q2 | 1.98 1.02 down from 2020 | 93 | 18% | — | ||
19Journal of Urban DesignTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.50Q2 | 2.54 0.05 up from 2020 | 135 | 30% | — | ||
20City Territory and ArchitectureOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.49Q2 | 2.57 0.06 down from 2020 | 53 | 100% | $1,140 | ||
21Planning PerspectivesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.44Q2 | 1.11 0.26 up from 2020 | 243 | 24% | — | ||
22Planning Practice and ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.32Q2 | 1.58 0.12 up from 2020 | 119 | 59% | — | ||
23Town Planning ReviewLiverpool University Press · United Kingdom | 1.29Q2 | 1.55 0.03 down from 2020 | 113 | 25% | — | ||
24disP - The Planning ReviewTaylor & Francis · Switzerland | 1.12Q2 | 1.44 0.40 up from 2020 | 163 | 48% | — | ||
25Journal of Urbanism International Research on Placemaking and Urban SustainabilityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.10Q2 | 1.84 0.08 up from 2020 | 90 | 24% | — | ||
26The Journal of Arts Management Law and SocietyRoutledge · United States | 1.08Q2 | 1.27 0.27 up from 2020 | 66 | 19% | — | ||
27Artivate A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the ArtsOAUniversity of Arkansas Press · United States | 1.04Q3 | 0.83 0.13 down from 2020 | 48 | 100% | — | ||
| 0.99Q3 | 1.35 0.43 up from 2020 | 111 | 1% | — | |||
29Arts and the MarketEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 0.92Q3 | 1.03 0.03 up from 2020 | 44 | 45% | — | ||
30Built EnvironmentAlexandrine Press · United Kingdom | 0.92Q3 | 1.26 0.55 up from 2020 | 137 | 32% | — | ||
31GeoScapeOADe Gruyter Open · Czechia | 0.86Q3 | 1.46 0.12 down from 2020 | 39 | 100% | — | ||
32UrbanisationSAGE Publishing · India | 0.82Q3 | 0.75 0.38 down from 2020 | 31 | 0% | $3,400 | ||
33Canadian Journal of Urban ResearchOAUniversity of Winnipeg · Canada | 0.80Q3 | 0.80 0.26 down from 2020 | 50 | 100% | — | ||
34urbe Revista Brasileira de Gestão UrbanaOAEditora Universitária Champagnat · Brazil | 0.62Q3 | 1.01 0.28 up from 2020 | 218 | 100% | — | ||
35Home CulturesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.56Q3 | 0.55 0.33 up from 2020 | 33 | 40% | — | ||
36Canadian journal of nonprofit and social economy researchOACanadian Institute for Studies in Publishing · Canada | 0.44Q3 | 0.61 0.08 up from 2020 | 64 | 100% | — | ||
37METU Journal of the Faculty of ArchitectureOAMiddle East Technical University · Türkiye | 0.42Q3 | 0.27 0.20 down from 2020 | 68 | 100% | — | ||
38Interventions économiquesOAAssociation d'Economie Politique · Canada | 0.40Q3 | 0.31 0.02 down from 2020 | 78 | 100% | — | ||
39Journal of Settlements and Spatial PlanningOABabeș-Bolyai University · Romania | 0.39Q3 | 0.64 0.13 up from 2020 | 57 | 100% | — | ||
40Journal of Urban Cultural StudiesIntellect · United Kingdom | 0.39Q4 | 0.48 0.32 up from 2020 | 54 | 27% | — | ||
| 0.37Q4 | 0.48 0.09 down from 2020 | 87 | 100% | — | |||
42ACE Arquitectura Ciudad y EntornoOAUniversitat Politècnica de Catalunya · Spain | 0.35Q4 | 0.89 0.15 up from 2020 | 124 | 100% | $215 | ||
43The Journal of Public SpaceOAItaly | 0.34Q4 | 0.50 0.06 up from 2020 | 159 | 100% | — | ||
44Journal of Contemporary Urban AffairsOATürkiye | 0.33Q4 | 0.75 0.35 up from 2020 | 85 | 100% | — | ||
45CiudadesOAUniversity of Valladolid · Spain | 0.32Q4 | 0.53 0.28 up from 2020 | 155 | 100% | — | ||
46Revue de la régulationOAUMR ESPACE et UMR LISST · France | 0.28Q4 | 0.37 0.13 up from 2020 | 109 | 100% | — | ||
47The International Journal of the Constructed EnvironmentPublisher not listed | 0.22Q4 | 0.33 0.08 up from 2020 | 34 | — | — | ||
48Urban and Regional PlanningOAScience Publishing Group · United States | 0.20Q4 | 0.45 0.01 down from 2020 | 45 | 100% | — | ||
49Espaço AbertoOAFederal University of Rio de Janeiro · Brazil | 0.08Q4 | 0.10 0.02 up from 2020 | 69 | 100% | — | ||
50PIXO - Revista de Arquitetura Cidade e ContemporaneidadeOAFederal University of Pelotas · Brazil | 0.04Q4 | 0.04 0.01 up from 2020 | 117 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Urban Studies 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.
9 additional Urban Studies 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
- 51
- Window papers (baseline)
- 48,167 +5.1% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 1.08 -24.1% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 1
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 | 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.