Top journals in education ranked by 2007 impact factor

Journal title	Cites in 2007 to journal	Impact factor for 2007	No of articles in 2007
1 Journal of Engineering Education	638	3.000	28
2 Academy of Management: Learning and Education	338	2.796	20
3 Scientific Studies of Reading	4	2.676	15
4 Review of Educational Research	1,760	2.600	16
5 Journal of American College Health	1,059	1.940	59
6 American Educational Research Journal	1,501	1.930	29
7 Health Education Research	1,801	1.786	81
8 Computers & Education	773	1.602	123
9 Journal of the Learning Sciences	567	1.571	15
10 Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics	519	1.361	16
11 AIDS Education and Prevention	1,217	1.359	42
12 Journal of Research in Reading	262	1.340
13 Sociology of Education	1,249	1.290	16
14 Language Learning & Technology	169	1.222	1
15 Journal of Research in Science Teaching	1,754	1.148	61
15 Reading Research Quarterly	1,167	1.148
17 Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis	653	1.062	14
17 Elementary School Journal	651	1.062	20
19 Learning and Instruction	795	1.029	52
20 Harvard Educational Review	844	1.000	25

The data above provide the latest ranking by impact factor for journals of education indexed by Thomson Reuters in its Journal Citations Report for the Social Sciences for 2007. The impact factor is simply one measure of a journal’s influence (there are many others). It is a weighted measure – of citations per paper – and as such it is an attempt to compare journals of the same subject area that publish different numbers of papers each year. Journals producing many articles would typically­­ attract more citations than those publishing comparatively fewer articles. The impact factor is calculated as citations in year 3 to a journal’s contents in years 1 and 2, divided by the number of regular articles and reviews published in years 1 and 2. As such, this is a relatively short-term measure of journal influence. In a field such as education, articles tend to receive citations many years after their publication, and the peak citation rate may be five years or more after an article appears. For this reason, the above ranking should be interpreted as “early returns” on the current status of professional journals in education.

Source: Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports for the Social Sciences, 2007.