Best journals for Social Science
The top 40 of 5,486 Social Science journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), leaving out journals Scimago files only under other fields, drawn from a 17,782-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).
- 1Science19.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of ScienceScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 3International Journal of Information Management14.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BVScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 4Educational Psychology Review12.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business MediaScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 7Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity10.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business MediaOpen AccessDOAJScopus
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- 10Education and Information Technologies10.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business MediaScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 14Journal of Educational Computing Research9.3 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE PublishingScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 17Ethics and Information Technology8.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business MediaScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 18Smart Cities8.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing InstituteOpen AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
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- 21Academy of Management Learning and Education8.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Academy of ManagementScopusWeb of Science
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- 24Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education7.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & FrancisScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 26Journal of Management Information Systems7.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & FrancisScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 27Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BVScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 36Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies6.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BVScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
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- 38Journal of Consumer Research6.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University PressScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 39European Journal of Information Systems6.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Palgrave MacmillanScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
- 40Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication6.8 cites/paper · Q1 · WileyOpen 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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