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 [email protected].

Rank	JOURNAL TITLE	SSCI	WESTLAW	Articles
1	European J. of Psych. Applied to Legal Context	3.68	0.00	22
2	Law and Human Behavior	2.78	0.18	109
3	Annual Review of Law and Social Science	2.36	0.34	50
4	Psychology, Public Policy, and Law	2.22	0.24	73
5	Criminal Justice and Behavior	2.16	0.00	165
6	Legal and Criminological Psychology	1.76	0.02	55
7	Law and Society Review	1.60	0.14	53
8	Law and Social Inquiry	1.51	0.24	75
9	Psychology, Crime, and Law	1.46	0.02	113
10	Journal of Empirical Legal Studies	1.39	0.57	54
11	Int. J. of Forensic Mental Health	1.27	0.00	59
12	International Journal of Law and Psychiatry	1.19	0.00	157
13	Journal of Law and Society	1.09	0.11	58
14	Crime, Law, and Social Change	0.95	0.03	105
15	Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology	0.94	0.00	103
16	Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice	0.87	0.01	47
17	Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law	0.74	0.00	133
18	Behavioral Sciences and the Law	0.68	0.06	85
19	Psychological Injury and Law	NA	0.00	59
20	Jurimetrics	NA	0.49	53

Interactive Scatterplot

See our new interactive scatterplot of Psychology 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.