Question 1

What are the best journals for Anthropology?

Accepted Answer

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Anthropology journals include Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews, Journal of Human Evolution, Current Anthropology, Archaeology in Oceania/Archæology & physical anthropology in Oceania, American Anthropologist. The top 40 of 218 ranked venues are listed on this page; all 40 are Scimago Q1. Each shows its open-access status and indexing, and predatory venues are excluded. For a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

Question 2

How were these Anthropology journals ranked?

Accepted Answer

Journals are placed by two independent classifications, OpenAlex's and Scimago's, plus any documented corrections. A journal both place under Anthropology ranks ahead, within its Scimago quartile, of one only OpenAlex places there — because Scimago does not cover it, files it as Multidisciplinary, or files it under a neighbouring subject or only under a broad “(miscellaneous)” category (which counts as agreement when Anthropology is the journal's main OpenAlex subfield). By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, journals both sources place under Anthropology come first, then venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Anthropology come before those that list it second or third, and ties go to OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window. A venue whose main subfield is unrelated to Anthropology — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Anthropology — is listed after all the others. Where cites/paper decides, a journal with fewer than 30 papers in OpenAlex over the four most recent publication years is listed after those with more: a two-year average over so few papers can rest on a single article (3 of the 218 journals ranked here are below that floor; none of them is among the 40 shown). Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded.

Question 3

Why don't all Anthropology journals show a quartile?

Accepted Answer

Scimago doesn't cover every journal — many strong regional and open-access venues are absent from it. We show "no Scimago quartile" for those rather than hide them; it's a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

Question 4

How do I find the best journal for my specific Anthropology paper?

Accepted Answer

Paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder — it returns a shortlist matched to your paper's topic from the same index, with acceptance-fit signals, open-access status, and predatory flags. A free account starts with 25 welcome credits; each run costs 15.

Best journals for Anthropology

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