Sociology and Political Science · 638 journals indexed

Best open-access journals for Sociology and Political Science

The top Sociology and Political Science journals open-access only, ranked by Scimago quartile then cites/paper, drawn from a 17,786-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded. 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).

  1. 1
    PNAS Nexus
    6.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
    4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Palgrave Macmillan
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    International Journal of Qualitative Methods
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Computers in Human Behavior Reports
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Qualitative Research
    2.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    SAGE Open
    2.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
    2.3 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Demography
    2.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    European Societies
    2.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Routledge
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    Frontiers in Sociology
    1.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  11. 11
    Politics and Religion
    1.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites
    1.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Editura Universitatii din Oradea
    Open AccessDOAJScopus
  13. 13
    Revista de Estudios Sociales
    1.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Universidad de Los Andes
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  14. 14
    Surveillance & Society
    1.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Surveillance Studies Network
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    Religions
    0.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  16. 16
    Refuge Canada s Journal on Refuge
    0.8 cites/paper · Q1 · York University
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  17. 17
    Monitoring obŝestvennogo mneniâ: èkonomičeskie i socialʹnye peremeny
    0.8 cites/paper · Q1 · VTSIOM
    Open AccessDOAJScopus
  18. 18
    Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie / Russian Sociological Review
    0.7 cites/paper · Q1 · National Research University – Higher School of Economics
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  19. 19
    资源科学
    0.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Chinese Academy of Sciences Geography
    Open AccessDOAJScopus
  20. 20
    Estudios Eclesiásticos Revista de investigación e información teológica y canónica
    0.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Comillas Pontifical University
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  21. 21
    The New Research of Tuva
    0.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Novye Issledovaniâ Tuvy
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  22. 22
  23. 23
    Tydskrif vir letterkunde
    0.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  24. 24
    Studia Litterarum
    0.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Gorky Institute of World Literature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  25. 25
    Scripta Theologica
    0.1 cites/paper · Q1 · University of Navarre
    Open AccessScopusWeb of Science
  26. 26
    проект байкал
    0.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences
    Open AccessDOAJScopus
  27. 27
    Societies
    3.5 cites/paper · Q2 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Cogent Social Sciences
    3.2 cites/paper · Q2 · Cogent OA
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    Journal of Occupational Health
    2.8 cites/paper · Q2 · Wiley
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  30. 30
    Social Sciences
    2.3 cites/paper · Q2 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    Obstetrics & Gynecology Science
    2.2 cites/paper · Q2 · Indonesian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Journal of Science Communication
    2.0 cites/paper · Q2 · Sissa Medialab
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    Frontiers in Communication
    2.0 cites/paper · Q2 · Frontiers Media
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    tripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society
    1.7 cites/paper · Q2 · tripleC
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    Tourism and hospitality management
    1.6 cites/paper · Q2 · Faculty of tourism and hospitality management
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  36. 36
    Social Inclusion
    1.6 cites/paper · Q2 · Cogitatio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    Open Research Europe
    1.2 cites/paper · Q2 · European Commission
    Open AccessDOAJScopusPubMed
  38. 38
    Dados
    0.8 cites/paper · Q2 · Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  39. 39
    Estudos Avançados
    0.8 cites/paper · Q2 · University of São Paulo
    Open AccessDOAJScopus
  40. 40
    Психология Журнал Высшей школы экономики
    0.8 cites/paper · Q2 · National Research University – Higher School of Economics
    Open AccessScopusWeb 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.

Best journals in other disciplines

Frequently asked

PNAS Nexus, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Computers in Human Behavior Reports, Qualitative Research are among the top results, ranked by Scimago quartile then OpenAlex cites/paper from a 17,786-venue index, predatory venues excluded. The full list is on this page; for a match to your specific paper use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.