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
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2024
334 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 334 ranked journals in 2024. The median OJR fell 0.10 on 2023 to 1.52, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.66. The top three are International Security, Contemporary Security Policy, and West European Politics.
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)
334 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 10.25Q1 | 8.19 2.25 up from 2023 | 73 | 39% | — | ||
2Contemporary Security PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.43Q1 | 7.23 0.18 down from 2023 | 83 | 65% | — | ||
3West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 9.33Q1 | 5.40 1.87 down from 2023 | 216 | 94% | — | ||
4American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 8.63Q1 | 7.96 0.63 up from 2023 | 228 | 76% | $4,100 | ||
5Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 8.59Q1 | 6.01 1.13 up from 2023 | 200 | 8% | — | ||
6Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 8.20Q1 | 12.42 0.50 up from 2023 | 226 | 52% | $4,360 | ||
7American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 7.72Q1 | 6.59 1.98 down from 2023 | 415 | 94% | $3,550 | ||
8Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 6.96Q1 | 8.17 1.09 down from 2023 | 105 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
9Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 6.92Q1 | 5.03 1.40 down from 2023 | 247 | 66% | $3,900 | ||
10European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 6.68Q1 | 4.79 0.01 down from 2023 | 211 | 90% | $3,550 | ||
11Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 6.26Q1 | 5.87 1.15 down from 2023 | 393 | 85% | — | ||
12Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 6.24Q1 | 3.66 0.13 down from 2023 | 62 | 50% | $4,030 | ||
13European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.98Q1 | 4.66 0.98 up from 2023 | 130 | 91% | $3,900 | ||
14Hague Journal on the Rule of LawSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.71Q1 | 3.64 0.74 down from 2023 | 50 | 82% | $2,590 | ||
15Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.57Q1 | 3.44 0.67 down from 2023 | 307 | 69% | $2,840 | ||
16Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 5.46Q1 | 3.72 0.07 up from 2023 | 138 | 54% | $3,290 | ||
17Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.32Q1 | 6.19 0.65 up from 2023 | 480 | 66% | $2,290 | ||
18South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 3.81 0.31 up from 2023 | 61 | 55% | — | ||
19Police QuarterlySAGE Publishing · United States | 5.23Q1 | 3.02 1.82 down from 2023 | 69 | 65% | $3,650 | ||
20Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.22Q1 | 3.76 0.77 down from 2023 | 169 | 86% | $3,650 | ||
21DemocratizationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.15Q1 | 3.61 1.74 down from 2023 | 250 | 51% | — | ||
22Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.00Q1 | 5.19 0.95 up from 2023 | 113 | 80% | $3,650 | ||
23JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 4.94Q1 | 4.49 0.36 up from 2023 | 347 | 90% | $4,170 | ||
24British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 4.65 0.21 up from 2023 | 248 | 98% | $3,550 | ||
25Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 4.84Q1 | 4.43 1.37 up from 2023 | 173 | 72% | — | ||
26International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 4.70Q1 | 3.61 0.57 down from 2023 | 851 | 28% | $4,936 | ||
27European SecurityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.66Q1 | 4.77 0.80 up from 2023 | 103 | 54% | — | ||
28Government and OppositionOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.63Q1 | 3.50 0.13 up from 2023 | 171 | 97% | $3,550 | ||
29The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 4.61Q1 | 3.93 0.74 down from 2023 | 392 | 21% | — | ||
30Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.53Q1 | 3.93 0.30 down from 2023 | 232 | 64% | $2,990 | ||
31Philosophy & Public AffairsWiley · United States | 4.46Q1 | 4.00 0.32 down from 2023 | 52 | 81% | $3,460 | ||
32Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 4.33Q1 | 5.93 0.99 up from 2023 | 136 | 87% | $3,550 | ||
33Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 2.97 0.22 down from 2023 | 270 | 47% | $3,650 | ||
34Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 4.12 0.70 up from 2023 | 115 | 64% | — | ||
35Policy Studies JournalWiley · United States | 4.16Q1 | 5.72 1.85 up from 2023 | 87 | 68% | $4,050 | ||
36East European PoliticsRoutledge · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 4.21 1.14 up from 2023 | 100 | 62% | — | ||
37Comparative EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.08Q1 | 3.85 0.75 up from 2023 | 116 | 45% | — | ||
38European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.02Q1 | 2.20 1.36 down from 2023 | 121 | 88% | $3,650 | ||
39The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.91Q1 | 3.88 0.46 up from 2023 | 137 | 82% | $3,650 | ||
40Policy & PoliticsPolicy Press · United Kingdom | 3.88Q1 | 3.74 2.50 down from 2023 | 84 | 49% | — | ||
41Policy SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.79Q1 | 4.59 0.10 up from 2023 | 110 | 69% | $3,190 | ||
42Political Science Research and MethodsOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.78Q1 | 3.45 0.13 down from 2023 | 198 | 97% | $3,550 | ||
43Political Research ExchangeOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.71Q1 | 3.27 1.27 up from 2023 | 67 | 100% | $461 | ||
44Scandinavian Political StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 3.63Q1 | 3.87 0.91 up from 2023 | 55 | 76% | $2,950 | ||
45Regional & Federal StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.62Q1 | 2.99 0.79 up from 2023 | 117 | 62% | — | ||
46International Relations of the Asia-PacificOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.53Q1 | 2.94 1.56 up from 2023 | 56 | 30% | $3,571 | ||
47The Pacific ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.44Q1 | 2.32 0.30 down from 2023 | 116 | 38% | — | ||
48Chinese Political Science ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · Singapore | 3.44Q1 | 4.47 0.49 up from 2023 | 75 | 33% | $3,390 | ||
49Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 3.42Q1 | 2.89 0.25 down from 2023 | 184 | 29% | $3,969 | ||
50Swiss Political Science ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 3.40Q1 | 2.53 0.55 down from 2023 | 110 | 77% | $3,140 |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations 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.
66 additional Political Science and International Relations 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
- 334
- Window papers (baseline)
- 289,519 +4.0% from indicator year 2021
- Median OJR
- 1.52 -10.8% from indicator year 2021
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
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 | 185 | 187 | 198 | 211 | 222 | 236 | 243 | 248 | 255 | 260 | 270 | 279 | 287 | 287 | 294 | 301 | 308 | 318 | 321 | 326 | 332 | 333 | 339 | 334 | 334 | 322 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 87,090 | 92,551 | 99,427 | 106,761 | 113,825 | 122,173 | 130,947 | 139,764 | 148,869 | 159,463 | 170,900 | 180,910 | 191,534 | 201,200 | 210,369 | 223,416 | 235,982 | 245,820 | 247,938 | 251,957 | 262,579 | 278,323 | 289,523 | 291,064 | 289,519 | 294,162 | |
| Median OJR | 0.81 | 0.99 | 0.90 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.31 | 1.27 | 1.42 | 1.603 | 1.68 | 1.77 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 1.78 | 1.69 | 1.83 | 1.92 | 1.87 | 1.723 | 1.85 | 1.67 | 1.71 | 1.602 | 1.63 | 1.52 | 1.718 |
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.