Best journals for Political Science and International Relations
The top 40 of 1,071 Political Science and International Relations journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by how central Political Science and International Relations is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), drawn from a 17,500-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded; the FAQ below gives the exact ranking rule. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder (a free account starts with 25 welcome credits).
Data as of — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.
- 1
- 2Journal of Chinese Political Science7.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business MediaScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 4American Political Science Review6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University PressScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 14International Studies Quarterly4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University PressScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 20Australian Journal Of International Affairs3.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & FrancisScopusWeb of Science
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- 23The British Journal of Politics and International Relations3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE PublishingScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 24European Journal of Political Research3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · WileyOpen AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 26British Journal of Political Science3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University PressOpen AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 37Review of International Studies3.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University PressScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 38European Journal of International Relations3.0 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE PublishingScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 39
- 40European Journal of Risk Regulation3.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University PressOpen AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
“Cites/paper” is the OpenAlex 2-year citation rate — a transparent signal, not a licensed Impact Factor. Many regional and open-access journals are strong but aren’t covered by Scimago, so they show “no Scimago quartile”; that’s a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.
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