As some of you may know, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) annually compiles listings of journal titles in the physical and biological sciences, medicine, technology, and social sciences, and ranks them according to the number of citations that each receives in other journals that year.  Librarians, researchers, and tenure committees use these ISI rankings, including what is called the "impact factor" (how much a journal impacts a certain field), to determine a journal's benefit to and cache within the scholarly community.

While these rankings do not provide the entire picture of a journal, including its peer-review process, its history, or value to a niche audience, they do relay a journal's overall discoverability, relative significance in the field, and timeliness of content--aspects that result from the hard work and foresight of its editorial office, a healthy society membership and reader base, and a diligent publisher able to utilize every means possible to enhance visibility in a digital environment.

To this end, we would like to congratulate the entire Social Problems editorial team on the 2006 ISI ranking for Social Problems, which went from # 5 to #9 overall in 2006. Although this is a small drop overall Social Problems is counted among the top three serial publications in Sociology, American Journal of Sociology (1), American Sociological Review (2).  This is a considerable achievement, congratulations to Amy Wharton and her entire team who have worked so hard to make Social Problems one of the most influential outlets in our discipline!


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Click here for a pdf of the 2006 ISI Rankings (PDF, 179 KB)