Tracking Scholarship in the Arts & Humanities

Various organizations publish rankings that include humanities journals, often in order to serve a specific purpose. These ranking lists are a source of controversy, mainly due to what the organizations choose to focus on to create these rankings (for example, ERIH Plus ranking focus on the administration of the journal, while Google Scholar focuses more on average citations). 

Journal rankings, in general, should not be considered a measure of journal quality and are often biased towards seniority and the length of time a journal has been in publication. It's important to keep this in mind while browsing the rankings listed on this page.

To learn more about the controversy surrounding journal rankings in the arts and humanities, check out the Further Readings & Resources page of this guide.

Below are rankings of humanities journals from around the world. Note that there are positives and negatives about each ranking system, and keep this in mind while searching these databases. For more information, check out the Further Readings & Resources page of this guide.

Worldwide Ranking Databases

• ERA Rankings (Australia). Excellence in Research for Australia Initiative releases annual reports with the top-ranking scholarship. The inclusion of humanities journals varies by year.
• ERIH Plus. Journal rankings for the humanities by the European Science Foundation.
• Google Scholar Top Ranked Journals in the Humanities, Literatures & Arts. A ranking list of journals that are indexed in Google Scholar in the disciplines of humanities, literature, and the arts.
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index. A list of journals and other information for the disciplines within the arts and humanities.
• SCImago Journal & Country Rank for the Arts and Humanities. A list of ranked journals in the SJR database based on the number of publications and the citations received.
• Publish or Perish. A database that calculates citations in academic publishing and rankings of journals and publications.
• InCites. A web-based research evaluation tool that allows users to analyze institutional productivity and benchmark their output against peers worldwide. Requires ACE account login, accessible through Web of Science.

Below are some commonly used directories that list publisher information for journals and books. If you believe something is missing from this list, please reach out so we can add it.

Journal Directories

• Cabell's Publishing Directories. Contains information about journals in the fields of business and education. Requires ACE account login.
• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. Contains information about serials and periodicals published worldwide, including whether they are peer-reviewed. Requires ACE account login.
• MLA Directory of Periodicals. Information about over 7,000 journals in the fields of modern languages and literature. Requires ACE account login.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Information about reputable open access journals in a variety of disciplines, currently up to more than 8,500. Free to access.
• Music Index. An index of music journals spanning 1975 to current. Requires ACE account login.
• Art Full Text. An index of publications in the disciplines of art, architecture, graphic design, landscape architecture, interior design, film, and museology. Requires ACE account login.
• Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI). An index of citations for over 265,000 articles and over 500 journals in the social sciences and humanities. Requires ACE account login.

Book Publisher Directories

• Directory of Academic Publishers. Maintained by the Social Psychology Network, contains information about academic publishers in psychology and related disciplines. Free to access.

• Academic Publishers of the United States. A list of publishers from around the world that publish in the United States. Free to access.

• University Presses. A wiki page with listings and reviews of university presses that focus on the humanities. Free to access.

• Association of University Presses Directory. A directory maintained by the AUP, a professional organization in the United States. Free to access.

• Directory of Open Access Books. Locate a publisher by keyword or subject. Most publishers use some version of a Creative Commons license for their publications. Free to access.

Below are some ranking and directory resources for disciplines that fall outside of the arts and humanities. If you have any questions about these resources, or believe something should be included on this list, please reach out.

Journal Ranking Resources & Databases

• Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Managed by Clarivate & Web of Science, this database uses citations over a two year period to rank prominent journals in a vary of disciplines. Coverage is primarily in the STEM fields. Requires ACE account login. 
• Eigenfactor. A freely available database that ranks journals by averaging citation counts over a multi-year period. Coverage is primarily in the sciences.
• SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR). A freely available database that ranks journals around the world, using average and normalized citation counts to ease comparisons across the disciplines.