What are the best journals for Sociology and Political Science?

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Sociology and Political Science journals include International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management, Tourism Review. The top 40 of 1,975 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).

How were these Sociology and Political Science journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Sociology and Political Science 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 Sociology and Political Science — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Sociology and Political Science — 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 (6 of the 1,975 journals ranked here are below that floor; none of them is among the 40 shown). Venues OpenAlex files only under its catch-all triple of Aerospace Engineering, Sociology and Political Science and Transportation are excluded: that triple is where it puts work it could not place. Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded.

Why don't all Sociology and Political Science journals show a quartile?

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.

How do I find the best journal for my specific Sociology and Political Science paper?

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.

Sociology and Political Science · 1,975 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Sociology and Political Science

The top 40 of 1,975 Sociology and Political Science journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by how central Sociology and Political Science 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 18 October 2026 — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals

1
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
12.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
2
Computers in Human Behavior
12.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing
11.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of Science
4
Tourism Management
11.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Tourism Review
10.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
6
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
8.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of Science
7
Telematics and Informatics
8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
MIS Quarterly
7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · MIS Quarterly
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
Computers & composition/Computers and composition
7.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Journal of Travel Research
7.3 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
Energy Research & Social Science
7.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Annals of Tourism Research
7.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
PNAS Nexus
7.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Big Data & Society
6.9 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
6.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
6.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
Tourism Management Perspectives
6.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research
6.6 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of Science
19
Internet Research
6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
20
Tourism Geographies
6.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of Science
21
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research
6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Routledge
ScopusWeb of Science
22
American Sociological Review
6.1 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
6.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Information Systems Research
5.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Information Technology and People
5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
26
Current Issues in Tourism
5.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of Science
27
Online Information Review
5.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
28
International Journal of Tourism Research
5.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of Science
29
Journal of Environmental Psychology
5.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
International Journal of Qualitative Methods
5.5 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights
5.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Emerald Publishing Limited
ScopusWeb of Science
32
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
5.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Palgrave Macmillan
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
Behaviour and Information Technology
5.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of Science
34
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Journal Of Vacation Marketing
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of Science
36
Journal of Social Issues
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
Current Opinion in Psychology
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Sociological Methods & Research
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Social Science Computer Review
4.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of Science

“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.