Journal rankings · indicator year 2022
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2022
Social Sciences journal rankings 2022
3,149 ranked journals · Field in Social Sciences
Social Sciences has 3,149 ranked journals in 2022. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.19 against 1.00, down 0.03 on 2021. A journal needs OJR 2.12 to reach Q1. The top three are Higher Education for the Future, International Journal of Information Management, and Journal of Educational Technology Systems.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2022. 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 2019–2021, the window the 2022 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 Sciences3,149 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 2021. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2019–2021, the window the 2022 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2019–2021 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 2013 to 2022. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Higher Education for the FutureSAGE Publishing · India | 16.59Q1 | 25.63 22.90 up from 2021 | 40 | 0% | $3,400 | ||
2International Journal of Information ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 13.85Q1 | 26.91 0.12 down from 2021 | 487 | 44% | $3,990 | ||
3Journal of Educational Technology SystemsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 13.46Q1 | 39.43 12.63 up from 2021 | 79 | 7% | $3,400 | ||
4International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 11.63Q1 | 6.24 5.71 down from 2021 | 76 | 52% | — | ||
5American Sociological ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 11.27Q1 | 10.59 7.63 down from 2021 | 128 | 23% | $3,900 | ||
6Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 10.95Q1 | 11.59 1.75 down from 2021 | 214 | 54% | $4,360 | ||
7Contemporary Security PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 10.53Q1 | 11.00 1.83 down from 2021 | 73 | 48% | — | ||
8European Journal of Teacher EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 10.33Q1 | 13.53 2.57 up from 2021 | 216 | 47% | — | ||
9The Review of International OrganizationsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 10.06Q1 | 3.51 4.73 down from 2021 | 98 | 65% | $2,990 | ||
10The Internet and Higher EducationElsevier BV · United States | 9.98Q1 | 13.42 0.89 down from 2021 | 70 | 29% | $4,120 | ||
11Qualitative Research in PsychologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 9.93Q1 | 21.75 12.48 up from 2021 | 85 | 33% | — | ||
12International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher EducationOASpringer Nature · Switzerland | 9.74Q1 | 16.84 0.81 up from 2021 | 166 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
13Tourism GeographiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.45Q1 | 18.67 2.63 up from 2021 | 227 | 38% | — | ||
14European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 9.38Q1 | 6.38 0.79 down from 2021 | 184 | 79% | $3,550 | ||
15Tourism ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.18Q1 | 16.12 2.47 up from 2021 | 507 | 38% | $4,690 | ||
16West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 8.87Q1 | 7.93 2.64 up from 2021 | 235 | 93% | — | ||
17Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 8.83Q1 | 14.50 0.31 up from 2021 | 90 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
18Educational PsychologistRoutledge · United States | 8.71Q1 | 10.78 1.02 down from 2021 | 68 | 33% | — | ||
19American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 8.56Q1 | 9.13 0.24 up from 2021 | 327 | 78% | $3,550 | ||
20Computers & EducationElsevier BV · United States | 8.41Q1 | 16.19 1.14 down from 2021 | 632 | 36% | $5,190 | ||
21School Leadership and ManagementRoutledge · United Kingdom | 8.26Q1 | 6.17 3.88 down from 2021 | 62 | 52% | — | ||
22Journal of Interactive MarketingSAGE Publishing · United States | 8.26Q1 | 15.24 2.73 up from 2021 | 99 | 44% | $5,400 | ||
23Annals of Tourism ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 8.12Q1 | 13.80 2.04 up from 2021 | 533 | 44% | $4,060 | ||
24International Journal of Educational Research OpenOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 8.11Q1 | 14.61 23.02 down from 2021 | 115 | 100% | $1,890 | ||
25Communication Methods and MeasuresTaylor & Francis · United States | 8.01Q1 | 16.50 6.47 up from 2021 | 52 | 55% | — | ||
26Journal of Destination Marketing & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.93Q1 | 11.61 2.67 up from 2021 | 278 | 32% | $4,320 | ||
27American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 7.91Q1 | 6.54 0.05 up from 2021 | 257 | 42% | $4,100 | ||
28Policy Reviews in Higher EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.80Q1 | 9.27 4.79 up from 2021 | 34 | 45% | — | ||
29Journal of Sustainable TourismTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.75Q1 | 12.92 0.27 down from 2021 | 520 | 43% | — | ||
30Review of Research in EducationSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.71Q1 | 11.31 1.00 down from 2021 | 46 | 21% | $2,500 | ||
31Information and OrganizationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.65Q1 | 10.32 1.36 up from 2021 | 49 | 38% | $3,590 | ||
32Human Behavior and Emerging TechnologiesOAWiley · United States | 7.65Q1 | 17.01 0.14 up from 2021 | 186 | 100% | $840 | ||
33Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 7.56Q1 | 6.84 0.81 up from 2021 | 208 | 40% | $3,900 | ||
34European Journal of Information SystemsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 7.37Q1 | 14.03 1.26 up from 2021 | 140 | 48% | — | ||
35European SocietiesOARoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.34Q1 | 12.90 3.36 up from 2021 | 128 | 64% | — | ||
36Tourism Management PerspectivesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.31Q1 | 12.42 1.82 up from 2021 | 372 | 38% | $3,780 | ||
37Information & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.23Q1 | 10.08 0.35 down from 2021 | 288 | 19% | $4,540 | ||
38ProspectsSpringer Science+Business Media | 7.20Q1 | 12.99 0.21 down from 2021 | 141 | 63% | $3,190 | ||
39Brock Education JournalOABrock University · Canada | 7.16Q1 | 9.88 0.16 down from 2021 | 49 | 100% | — | ||
| 7.15Q1 | 12.55 2.25 down from 2021 | 74 | 100% | — | |||
41Pedagogical ResearchOALectito Journals · United Kingdom | 7.11Q1 | 16.97 0.12 down from 2021 | 86 | 100% | — | ||
42Distance EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.06Q1 | 12.20 3.62 up from 2021 | 100 | 26% | — | ||
43Information Technology & TourismSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 6.96Q1 | 13.92 2.64 up from 2021 | 74 | 75% | $3,590 | ||
44Journal of Travel & Tourism MarketingTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.90Q1 | 8.90 0.71 down from 2021 | 169 | 25% | — | ||
45Political CommunicationTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.89Q1 | 9.29 0.04 down from 2021 | 129 | 47% | — | ||
46Science CommunicationSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.87Q1 | 11.31 1.92 up from 2021 | 95 | 36% | $3,900 | ||
47The International Journal of Press/PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.85Q1 | 8.58 1.10 up from 2021 | 143 | 42% | $3,900 | ||
48Educational ResearcherSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.77Q1 | 9.76 1.00 up from 2021 | 213 | 26% | $2,500 | ||
49Journal of Hospitality Marketing & ManagementTaylor & Francis · United States | 6.75Q1 | 12.88 1.92 up from 2021 | 124 | 38% | — | ||
50Big Data & SocietyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.74Q1 | 11.22 0.26 up from 2021 | 201 | 100% | $2,000 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, compared.
- Sociology and Political Science1,389
- Education752
- Political Science and International Relations339
- Communication77
- Gender Studies63
- Safety Research58
- Health54
- Public Administration52
- Linguistics and Language51
- Transportation51
- Urban Studies50
- Law47
- Library and Information Sciences42
- Demography39
- Anthropology37
- Geography, Planning and Development34
- Cultural Studies6
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2022. Corpus-wide, 89.5% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
704 additional Social Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2019–2021, 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: 2022. Publication window: 2019–2021. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 3,149
- Window papers (baseline)
- 2,065,185 +24.1% from indicator year 2019
- Median OJR
- 1.194 -9.9% from indicator year 2019
- Rising journals (2025)
- 134Comparison-group list (134)
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2019–2021 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.