Journal rankings · indicator year 2024
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2024
Library and Information Sciences journal rankings 2024
40 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Library and Information Sciences has 40 ranked journals in 2024. The median OJR rose 0.11 on 2023 to 0.86, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.45. The top three are New Review of Academic Librarianship, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, and Reference Services Review.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2024. 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 2021–2023, the window the 2024 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)
40 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 2023. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2021–2023, the window the 2024 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2021–2023 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 2015 to 2024. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1New Review of Academic LibrarianshipTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.46Q1 | 2.54 0.38 down from 2023 | 47 | 33% | — | ||
2The Journal of Academic LibrarianshipElsevier BV · United States | 2.04Q1 | 3.33 1.16 down from 2023 | 383 | 44% | $3,990 | ||
3Reference Services ReviewEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 2.01Q1 | 1.63 1.10 down from 2023 | 77 | 26% | — | ||
4Journal of the Australian Library and Information AssociationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.70Q1 | 2.95 1.12 up from 2023 | 94 | 29% | — | ||
5Library ManagementEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 1.62Q1 | 2.48 0.11 up from 2023 | 117 | 11% | — | ||
6Journal of Librarianship and Information ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.60Q1 | 2.98 0.60 up from 2023 | 239 | 34% | $3,650 | ||
7The Library QuarterlyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 1.57Q1 | 1.84 0.49 down from 2023 | 91 | 10% | — | ||
8Public Library QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.50Q1 | 2.30 0.47 up from 2023 | 84 | 29% | — | ||
9College & Research LibrariesOAAssociation of College and Research Libraries · United States | 1.46Q1 | 1.78 0.27 down from 2023 | 175 | 100% | — | ||
10Open Information ScienceOADe Gruyter · Poland | 1.45Q1 | 3.08 1.30 up from 2023 | 53 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
11IFLA JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.43Q2 | 2.27 0.26 up from 2023 | 141 | 41% | $3,650 | ||
12Communications in Information LiteracyOACommunications in Information Literacy · United States | 1.38Q2 | 1.17 0.19 down from 2023 | 49 | 100% | — | ||
13The International Information & Library ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.36Q2 | 1.40 0.12 up from 2023 | 84 | 8% | — | ||
14Journal of Education for Library and Information ScienceUniversity of Toronto Press | 1.32Q2 | 1.43 0.36 up from 2023 | 118 | 3% | — | ||
15Journal of Information LiteracyOAChartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals · United Kingdom | 1.20Q2 | 1.24 0.29 up from 2023 | 82 | 100% | — | ||
16Journal of Library AdministrationTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.04Q2 | 1.36 0.21 down from 2023 | 195 | 13% | — | ||
17Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance LearningTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.97Q2 | 0.96 0.38 down from 2023 | 44 | 0% | — | ||
18portal Libraries and the AcademyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 0.96Q2 | 1.09 0.04 up from 2023 | 141 | 10% | — | ||
19Journal of Business & Finance LibrarianshipTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.93Q2 | 2.11 1.18 up from 2023 | 57 | 9% | — | ||
20LibriOADe Gruyter · Germany | 0.93Q2 | 1.08 0.30 down from 2023 | 94 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
21Partnership The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and ResearchOAThe Partnership · Canada | 0.79Q3 | 0.77 0.30 down from 2023 | 53 | 100% | — | ||
22College & Undergraduate LibrariesTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.68Q3 | 0.73 0.54 down from 2023 | 36 | 13% | — | ||
23Proceedings of the ALISE Annual ConferenceOAPublisher not listed | 0.60Q3 | 0.23 0.04 up from 2023 | 239 | 100% | — | ||
24Journal of Access ServicesTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.53Q3 | 0.55 0.59 down from 2023 | 39 | 13% | — | ||
25School Libraries WorldwideInternational Association of School Librarianship · Canada | 0.51Q3 | 1.00 0.31 up from 2023 | 58 | 100% | — | ||
26Public & Access Services QuarterlyTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.50Q3 | 1.02 0.46 up from 2023 | 100 | 4% | — | ||
| 0.44Q3 | 0.50 0.05 up from 2023 | 89 | 100% | — | |||
27Library trendsJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 0.44Q3 | 0.39 0.14 down from 2023 | 92 | 10% | — | ||
29Library Leadership & ManagementOAUnited States | 0.43Q3 | 0.56 0.14 up from 2023 | 43 | 100% | — | ||
30Journal of Critical Library and Information StudiesOAUnited States | 0.42Q3 | 0.78 0.13 down from 2023 | 35 | — | — | ||
31International Journal of LibrarianshipOAChinese American Librarians Association · United States | 0.41Q4 | 0.43 0.10 up from 2023 | 68 | 100% | — | ||
32Journal of Library Outreach and EngagementOAPublisher not listed | 0.40Q4 | 0.41 0.19 down from 2023 | 32 | 100% | — | ||
33The Southeastern LibrarianOAUnited States | 0.29Q4 | 0.41 0.34 up from 2023 | 131 | 100% | — | ||
34College & Research Libraries NewsOAAssociation of College and Research Libraries · United States | 0.28Q4 | 0.49 0.28 up from 2023 | 418 | 100% | — | ||
35Evidence Based Library and Information PracticeOAUniversity of Alberta · Canada | 0.28Q4 | 0.60 0.03 up from 2023 | 162 | 100% | — | ||
36Journal of New LibrarianshipOAUniversity of Colorado Boulder · United States | 0.25Q4 | 0.31 0.10 up from 2023 | 77 | 100% | — | ||
37Children and LibrariesOAAmerican Library Association · United States | 0.20Q4 | 0.13no change | 172 | 100% | — | ||
38SLIS ConnectingOAUniversity of Southern Mississippi · United States | 0.09Q4 | 0.00 0.17 down from 2023 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
39Maine policy reviewOAUnited States | 0.07Q4 | 0.14 0.04 up from 2023 | 95 | 100% | — | ||
40South Carolina LibrariesUnited States | 0.02Q4 | 0.04no change | 39 | 80% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Library and Information Sciences highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,402
- Education698
- Political Science and International Relations334
- Communication72
- Gender Studies66
- Safety Research60
- Health56
- Urban Studies54
- Public Administration51
- Transportation51
- Linguistics and Language48
- Law46
- Demography40
- Library and Information Sciences40
- Anthropology36
- Geography, Planning and Development35
- Cultural Studies10
- Development4
- General Social Sciences2
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Life-span and Life-course Studies1
- Archeology0
Journals
Citations made in 2024. Corpus-wide, 87.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
8 additional Library and Information Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2021–2023, 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: 2024. Publication window: 2021–2023. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 40
- Window papers (baseline)
- 4,109 -10.9% from indicator year 2021
- Median OJR
- 0.86 -2.6% from indicator year 2021
- Rising journals (2025)
- 0
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2021–2023 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 | 26 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 30 | 30 | 34 | 36 | 36 | 38 | 39 | 39 | 41 | 43 | 44 | 43 | 41 | 42 | 44 | 41 | 41 | 42 | 41 | 40 | 38 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 2,623 | 2,730 | 3,048 | 3,403 | 3,671 | 3,772 | 3,878 | 4,238 | 4,743 | 5,234 | 5,613 | 5,920 | 6,171 | 6,083 | 5,893 | 5,519 | 5,326 | 5,069 | 4,955 | 4,770 | 4,650 | 4,610 | 4,529 | 4,380 | 4,109 | 4,152 | |
| Median OJR | 0.63 | 0.678 | 0.77 | 0.87 | 0.74 | 0.680 | 0.96 | 0.946 | 0.953 | 0.83 | 0.9227 | 1.28 | 1.29 | 1.39 | 1.1000 | 1.19 | 1.08 | 1.1002 | 0.954 | 0.9228 | 0.995 | 0.88 | 0.94 | 0.75 | 0.86 | 0.79 |
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.