Journal rankings · indicator year 2025
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2025
Political Science and International Relations journal rankings 2025
322 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Political Science and International Relations has 322 ranked journals in 2025. The median OJR rose 0.19 on 2024 to 1.72, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.78. No journal’s likely rank range stays within the top 4, so the intro names none.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2025. 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 2022–2024, the window the 2025 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)
322 ranked journals
Filters
Rank is the position by OJR within the list on screen; 1 is the highest. The small range under it is the likely rank range: in 95% of 1,000 resamples of the journal’s papers, it ranked inside that range. Journals whose ranges overlap are not clearly different. | 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 2024. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2022–2024, the window the 2025 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2022–2024 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 2016 to 2025. A label compares the 2022→2025 change with the median change of the journal’s field or domain. Rising needs a relative change of +10% or more that is at least 2 standard errors above zero; Falling needs -9.1% or less (rounded), at least 2 standard errors below zero. Sorting uses that relative change. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank 1; likely between #1 and #9 of 322International SecurityThe MIT Press · United States | 9.54Q1 | 5.71 2.48 down from 2024 | 69 | 58% | — | ||
Rank 2; likely between #1 and #8 of 322Government Information QuarterlyElsevier BV · United States | 8.63Q1 | 13.22 0.80 up from 2024 | 210 | 63% | $4,360 | ||
Rank 3; likely between #1 and #16 of 322Contemporary Security PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 8.34Q1 | 5.83 1.40 down from 2024 | 88 | 70% | — | ||
Rank 4; likely between #1 and #9 of 322West European PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 8.33Q1 | 5.90 0.50 up from 2024 | 210 | 80% | — | ||
Rank 5; likely between #1 and #12 of 322American Journal of Political ScienceWiley · United States | 7.88Q1 | 5.38 2.58 down from 2024 | 236 | 81% | $4,100 | ||
Rank 6; likely between #2 and #11 of 322American Political Science ReviewCambridge University Press · United States | 7.68Q1 | 6.27 0.33 down from 2024 | 399 | 90% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 7; likely between #2 and #11 of 322Journal of European Public PolicyRoutledge · United Kingdom | 7.53Q1 | 6.99 1.12 up from 2024 | 403 | 84% | — | ||
Rank 8; likely between #3 and #19 of 322Policy and SocietyOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 6.82Q1 | 7.01 1.15 down from 2024 | 118 | 100% | $1,634 | ||
Rank 9; likely between #4 and #18 of 322European Journal of Political ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 6.59Q1 | 4.37 0.42 down from 2024 | 243 | 92% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 10; likely between #6 and #19 of 322JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom | 6.32Q1 | 5.11 0.62 up from 2024 | 345 | 82% | $4,170 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 11; likely between #4 and #37 of 322Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom | 6.04Q1 | 3.08 0.64 down from 2024 | 127 | 56% | $3,290 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 12; likely between #5 and #37 of 322European SecurityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.75Q1 | 4.00 0.77 down from 2024 | 103 | 56% | — | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 13; likely between #7 and #31 of 322Journal of democracyJohns Hopkins University Press · United States | 5.75Q1 | 4.32 1.69 down from 2024 | 201 | 40% | — | ||
Rank 14; likely between #4 and #55 of 322South European Society & PoliticsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.62Q1 | 3.32 0.50 down from 2024 | 56 | 64% | — | ||
Rank 15; likely between #9 and #27 of 322Comparative Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United States | 5.57Q1 | 4.25 0.78 down from 2024 | 273 | 64% | $3,900 | ||
Rank 16; likely between #2 and #82 of 322Political AnalysisCambridge University Press · United States | 5.55Q1 | 8.04 2.11 up from 2024 | 97 | 93% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 17; likely between #10 and #34 of 322British Journal of Political ScienceOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 5.46Q1 | 5.50 0.85 up from 2024 | 198 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 18; likely between #12 and #29 of 322Higher EducationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.24Q1 | 4.85 1.33 down from 2024 | 563 | 59% | $2,290 | ||
Rank 19; likely between #10 and #47 of 322Journal of European IntegrationTaylor & Francis · Netherlands | 5.07Q1 | 4.47 0.03 up from 2024 | 204 | 74% | — | ||
Rank 20; likely between #5 and #63 of 322East European PoliticsRoutledge · United Kingdom | 5.05Q1 | 2.30 1.91 down from 2024 | 95 | 39% | — | ||
Rank 21; likely between #4 and #87 of 322Journal of Political PhilosophyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.02Q1 | 3.00 0.66 down from 2024 | 35 | — | $4,030 | ||
Rank 22; likely between #12 and #42 of 322Political BehaviorSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.96Q1 | 3.76 0.16 down from 2024 | 219 | 70% | $2,990 | ||
Rank 23; likely between #13 and #42 of 322Political StudiesSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.84Q1 | 3.41 0.34 down from 2024 | 163 | 75% | $3,650 | ||
Rank 24; likely between #8 and #75 of 322Political Research ExchangeOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.80Q1 | 2.67 0.59 down from 2024 | 73 | 100% | $461 | ||
Rank 25; likely between #13 and #53 of 322European Journal of International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.71Q1 | 4.27 0.39 down from 2024 | 127 | 76% | $3,900 | ||
Rank 26; likely between #13 and #59 of 322The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.65Q1 | 2.94 0.95 down from 2024 | 163 | 85% | $3,650 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 27; likely between #15 and #49 of 322Party PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.63Q1 | 3.03 0.06 up from 2024 | 257 | 57% | $3,650 | ||
Rank 28; likely between #18 and #45 of 322International AffairsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 4.52Q1 | 3.73 0.12 up from 2024 | 938 | 26% | $4,936 | ||
Rank 29; likely between #12 and #63 of 322European Union PoliticsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.51Q1 | 3.55 1.35 up from 2024 | 112 | 46% | $3,650 | ||
Rank 30; likely between #15 and #55 of 322Public Opinion QuarterlyOxford University Press · United States | 4.49Q1 | 4.06 1.17 up from 2024 | 182 | 44% | $3,969 | ||
Rank 31; likely between #15 and #55 of 322Journal of Chinese Political ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 4.46Q1 | 6.20 3.44 up from 2024 | 126 | 46% | $3,590 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 32; likely between #17 and #58 of 322DemocratizationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.36Q1 | 3.48 0.14 down from 2024 | 251 | 53% | — | ||
Rank 33; likely between #14 and #66 of 322Journal of European Social PolicySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.32Q1 | 2.85 2.34 down from 2024 | 115 | 86% | $3,650 | ||
Rank 34; likely between #20 and #62 of 322Political Science Research and MethodsOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 4.16Q1 | 3.21 0.24 down from 2024 | 183 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 35; likely between #19 and #63 of 322Comparative EducationTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.12Q1 | 4.45 0.60 up from 2024 | 125 | 50% | — | ||
Rank 36; likely between #15 and #79 of 322Chinese Political Science ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · Singapore | 4.11Q1 | 5.19 0.72 up from 2024 | 68 | 43% | $3,390 | ||
Rank 37; likely between #16 and #74 of 322Journal of Education PolicyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.07Q1 | 3.16 0.96 down from 2024 | 127 | 64% | — | ||
Rank 38; likely between #22 and #60 of 322Journal of Contemporary ChinaRoutledge · United States | 4.06Q1 | 3.25 0.10 up from 2024 | 190 | 35% | — | ||
Rank 39; likely between #22 and #64 of 322Electoral StudiesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.02Q1 | 3.06 0.38 down from 2024 | 303 | 70% | $2,840 | ||
Rank 40; likely between #25 and #61 of 322GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom | 3.99Q1 | 3.82 0.48 up from 2024 | 208 | 72% | $3,730 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 41; likely between #20 and #69 of 322Policy SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.98Q1 | 4.38 0.21 down from 2024 | 112 | 70% | $3,190 | ||
Rank 42; likely between #20 and #80 of 322The Pacific ReviewTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.96Q1 | 3.11 0.80 up from 2024 | 117 | 21% | — | ||
Rank 43; likely between #27 and #60 of 322The Journal of PoliticsUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 3.92Q1 | 2.96 0.97 down from 2024 | 434 | 9% | — | ||
Rank 44; likely between #18 and #91 of 322Hague Journal on the Rule of LawSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.84Q1 | 1.49 2.15 down from 2024 | 71 | 71% | $2,590 | ||
Rank 45; likely between #26 and #70 of 322The China QuarterlyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.80Q1 | 3.06 0.37 up from 2024 | 195 | 29% | $3,550 | Rising vs field, 2022–25 | |
Rank 46; likely between #19 and #89 of 322Global ConstitutionalismOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.79Q1 | 2.52 0.55 up from 2024 | 98 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 47; likely between #29 and #73 of 322Global Studies QuarterlyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.67Q1 | 3.14 0.38 up from 2024 | 279 | 100% | $2,137 | ||
Rank 48; likely between #19 and #101 of 322European Political Science ReviewOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.64Q1 | 4.10 1.24 up from 2024 | 136 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 49; likely between #22 and #98 of 322Government and OppositionOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.63Q1 | 3.45 0.05 down from 2024 | 133 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
Rank 50; likely between #23 and #104 of 322German PoliticsRoutledge · United States | 3.58Q1 | 1.72 1.18 down from 2024 | 83 | 67% | — |
18 Political Science and International Relations journals are labelled rising: their OJR moved up between 2022 and 2025 clearly faster than the median journal of their field or domain.
A journal is rising when its OJR grew from 2022 to 2025 faster than the median journal of its field (or domain, when the field is small), by two tests: the relative change is +10% or more, and it is at least 2 standard errors above zero. So the range of the change at 2 standard errors stays above zero, though not necessarily above +10%.
The bar is that range on a ratio scale; the shaded band, -9.1% to +10%, holds changes too small for a label. The list is ordered by the low end of the range, so the surest rises come first.
- 1European SecurityTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom+155% vs groupOJR 2.39 → 5.75range +66% to +292%
- 2Review of Policy ResearchWiley · United States+128% vs groupOJR 1.27 → 2.74range +60% to +225%
- 3Politische VierteljahresschriftSpringer VS · Germany+173% vs groupOJR 0.88 → 2.26range +59% to +370%
- 4JCMS Journal of Common Market StudiesWiley · United Kingdom+85% vs groupOJR 3.62 → 6.32range +47% to +132%
- 5Journal of Contemporary European StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom+103% vs groupOJR 1.46 → 2.80range +45% to +184%
- 6The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom+101% vs groupOJR 2.45 → 4.65range +41% to +187%
- 7Res PublicaSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands+107% vs groupOJR 0.73 → 1.42range +33% to +223%
- 8European Political ScienceOAPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom+110% vs groupOJR 1.60 → 3.18range +29% to +244%
- 9The China QuarterlyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom+77% vs groupOJR 2.27 → 3.80range +24% to +152%
- 10Ethical Theory and Moral PracticeSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands+79% vs groupOJR 0.76 → 1.28range +24% to +159%
- 11Journal of Chinese Political ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States+78% vs groupOJR 2.65 → 4.46range +21% to +163%
- 12The International SpectatorRoutledge · Italy+68% vs groupOJR 2.12 → 3.35range +17% to +142%
- 13AJIL UnboundOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom+81% vs groupOJR 0.74 → 1.27range +16% to +184%
- 14GovernanceWiley · United Kingdom+50% vs groupOJR 2.81 → 3.99range +10% to +105%
- 15Australian Journal Of International AffairsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom+59% vs groupOJR 1.68 → 2.52range +9.3% to +132%
- 16Politics & PolicyWiley · United States+59% vs groupOJR 1.40 → 2.09range +7.9% to +133%
- 17Comparative European PoliticsPalgrave Macmillan · United Kingdom+70% vs groupOJR 3.77 → 6.04range +5.5% to +172%
- 18East European Politics and Societies and CulturesSAGE Publishing · United States+51% vs groupOJR 1.31 → 1.87range +2.5% to +123%
No-label zone, -9.1% to +10%Group median changeBar scale -80% to +407% (ratio scale)
7 Political Science and International Relations journals are labelled falling: their OJR moved between 2022 and 2025 clearly behind the median journal of their field or domain.
A journal is falling when its OJR changed from 2022 to 2025 by less than the median journal of its field (or domain, when the field is small), by two tests: the relative change is -9.1% or less (rounded), and it is at least 2 standard errors below zero. So the range of the change at 2 standard errors stays below zero, though not necessarily below -9.1%.
The bar is that range on a ratio scale; the shaded band, -9.1% to +10%, holds changes too small for a label. The list is ordered by the high end of the range, so the surest falls come first.
- 1Revista de Administração PúblicaOAFundação Getúlio Vargas · Brazil-59% vs groupOJR 1.50 → 0.59range -70% to -42%
- 2Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-GovernmentSlovenia-57% vs groupOJR 0.61 → 0.25range -72% to -32%
- 3Informatik-SpektrumSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany-59% vs groupOJR 0.48 → 0.19range -78% to -24%
- 4Contemporary South AsiaTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom-52% vs groupOJR 2.50 → 1.14range -70% to -23%
- 5Asian EthnicityRoutledge · United Kingdom-47% vs groupOJR 1.92 → 0.96range -67% to -16%
- 6Journal of Islamic StudiesOxford University Press · United Kingdom-63% vs groupOJR 0.32 → 0.11range -85% to -7.7%
- 7The Hague Journal of DiplomacyBrill · Netherlands-45% vs groupOJR 2.10 → 1.09range -68% to -6.5%
No-label zone, -9.1% to +10%Group median changeBar scale -86% to +633% (ratio scale)
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Political Science and International Relations highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,388
- Education693
- Political Science and International Relations322
- Communication71
- Gender Studies65
- Safety Research61
- Urban Studies54
- Health53
- Transportation51
- Linguistics and Language50
- Public Administration49
- Law46
- Demography38
- Library and Information Sciences38
- Anthropology37
- Geography, Planning and Development34
- Cultural Studies8
- Development4
- General Social Sciences2
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Life-span and Life-course Studies1
- Archeology0
Journals
The endpoints below each rank show its likely range. How rank ranges are calculated
Citations made in 2025. Corpus-wide, 84.3% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
51 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 2022–2024, 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: 2025. Publication window: 2022–2024. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 322
- Window papers (baseline)
- 294,162 +1.6% from indicator year 2022
- Median OJR
- 1.718 +7.2% from indicator year 2022
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2022–2024 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.