Law & Psychology Journal Rankings

Law and Psychology Journal Impact Rankings
Note: A previous version of these rankings appears in the AP-LS Newsletter.

 

Updated March 2020 | Because of the field's interdisciplinary nature, it is difficult to find comprehensive rankings of academic journals geared toward Psychology & Law. These journals are often scattered throughout different "categories" in traditional indices, and most indices only cover a selection of the relevant journals.

On this page is a list of psychology and law academic journals along with different measures of impact. Each measure uses a different method and data source for calculating impact. A full description of these measures is found at the bottom of the page. The measures below are valid January 2020 - July 2020.

  • SSCI (Social Science Citation Index / Journal Citation Reports): The average number of citations articles in a particular journal received in three years.
  • Westlaw Impact Factor :Average number of law review / legal journal citations articles in a particular journal received.
  • Articles: These are the number of articles that appeared in each journal during the SSCI impact factor rating period.

This ranking takes a broad view of "psychology and law" and includes journals that 1) are interdisciplinary, 2) contain at least some emphasis on the law, and 3) contain at least some emphasis on psychology, psychiatry, or the social sciences. Although we tried to be comprehensive, we may have missed a journal. If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, feel free to contact us at laclab@asu.edu.

RankJOURNAL TITLE SSCI WESTLAW Articles
1 European J. of Psych. Applied to Legal Context3.680.0022
2 Law and Human Behavior2.780.18109
3 Annual Review of Law and Social Science2.360.3450
4 Psychology, Public Policy, and Law2.220.2473
5 Criminal Justice and Behavior2.160.00165
6 Legal and Criminological Psychology1.760.0255
7 Law and Society Review1.600.1453
8 Law and Social Inquiry1.510.2475
9 Psychology, Crime, and Law1.460.02113
10 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies1.390.5754
11 Int. J. of Forensic Mental Health1.270.0059
12 International Journal of Law and Psychiatry1.190.00157
13 Journal of Law and Society1.090.1158
14 Crime, Law, and Social Change0.950.03105
15 Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology0.940.00103
16 Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice0.870.0147
17 Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law0.740.00133
18 Behavioral Sciences and the Law0.680.0685
19 Psychological Injury and LawNA0.0059
20 JurimetricsNA0.4953

Interactive Scatterplot

See our new interactive scatterplot of Psychlogy and Law Journals by clicking here or the graph below!

Measure Detail

Social Science Citation Index Impact Factor
The Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) is the most common source of impact factor ratings. The SSCI is quite comprehensive within psychology and the social sciences; however, its database contains only a limited selection of legal journals and law reviews. Therefore, this ranking is biased toward each journal's impact within the psychology / social science literature.

Westlaw Impact Factor
Average number of law review / legal journal citations articles in a particular journal received. These journals appear in the Law Journal Rankings compiled annually by John Doyle at Washington and Lee University's Law School. The impact factors are calculated from articles that appear in the Westlaw database and are current as of 2018. Westlaw is a comprehensive database of legal journals and law reviews, but it does not contain any non-legal social science journals. Therefore, this ranking is biased toward each journal's impact within the legal literature. Also, because of the different reference groups, these impact factors are not directly comparable to the SSCI impact factors.