PSYC71: Social Psychology Laboratory

Looking for inspiration for your research topic? Browsing through social psychology journals can be a great way to get the ideas flowing!

Below is a sample of key journals in social psychology, based on Journal Impact Factor (JIF) rankings from the 2020 Journal Citation Report (JCR). You can access these journals by looking them up in LibrarySearch, the University of Toronto Libraries' catalogue. Check out our guide on how to Find Specific Titles if you'd like more info on how to conduct a journal title search.

• Personality and Social Psychology Review
• Social Issues and Policy Review
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
• European Review of Social Psychology
• European Journal of Personality
• Journal of Personality
• Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
• British Journal of Social Psychology
• Journal of Health and Social Behavior
• Social Psychological and Personality Science
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

What is it?

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) or Impact Factor (IF) ranks journals based on how many times a journal's “average article” is cited in a particular year. The calculation is based on a 2-year citation period, where a journal’s citations are divided by the total number of published citable articles. 

The 5-Year Journal Impact Factor calculates over a larger span of years. The 5-year span can be useful for subjects where articles take longer to accumulate citations. A publication’s 5-Year Journal Impact Factor will tend to be higher than its Journal Impact Factor when the wait between publication and peak citation is greater than two years.

Limitations

• Open to manipulation
  • Many scholars believe it is not the most effective way to measure a journal's impact
• Not all journals have a JIF
  • Not available for all journals and coverage varies by discipline; only calculates citations for publications indexed by Web of Science.
• Should not be used to compare journals across disciplines
  • Impact factors vary between disciplines
• Not an indicator for the value of individual articles or authors
  • The impact factor was created to show the impact of a specific journal, not a specific scholar. The quality and impact of an author’s work is separate from the impact of a journal

Tools Available

• InCites Journal Citation Reports (JCR) uses citation and article count to evaluate and compare journals in a field. It can help you understand how frequently researchers are using particular journals. The resource also tracks: 
  • Total citations
  • Journal Impact Factor 
  • Eigenfactor Score
  • Most frequently cited journals, highest impact journals, and the largest journals in a field

Adapted from the Journal Impact guide