Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A research committee reviewing a faculty dossier in four-field anthropology consulting American Anthropologist's 5-year JIF (3.2) alongside qualitative book monographs to evaluate sustained scholarly impact.
- Is an instance
An author with an institutional Read & Publish agreement checking American Anthropologist's hybrid open-access options before submitting an archaeological report.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Using the journal-level impact factor of American Anthropologist as a quantitative proxy for the methodological validity of an individual ethnographic field study.
Editorial commentary
Quick answer: American Anthropologist is the flagship quarterly peer-reviewed journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published by Wiley-Blackwell on the AnthroSource platform (print ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433). Operating across four major subfields—sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology—the journal serves as the disciplinary record for anthropology research in the United States and globally. In the Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the journal carries a 2-year Journal Impact Factor typically ranging between 1.7 and 1.9, alongside a 5-year Impact Factor exceeding 3.0.
Disciplinary Scope and Four-Field Architecture
Established in its initial series in 1888 and reconstituted in its current series in 1899, American Anthropologist represents the disciplinary standard for cross-subfield anthropological inquiry. In academic institutions where research interfaces with both social sciences and the humanities, the journal bridges methodological traditions that are often separated into distinct departments elsewhere. For scholars navigating the institutional boundary between ethnography and human evolutionary biology, or assessing how anthropological fieldwork aligns with other social disciplines, understanding what anthropology entails in practice clarifies why this publication maintains an integrative scope. Disciplinary comparisons such as sociology versus anthropology highlight the distinct ethnographic and evolutionary methodologies that the journal curates.
The journal structures submissions across distinct subfield editorial tracks, each evaluated by dedicated associate editors:
- Sociocultural Anthropology: Ethnographic analyses, social theory, political economy, and transnational processes.
- Archaeology: Methodological, theoretical, and empirical reports across prehistoric and historical contexts.
- Biological Anthropology: Human variation, bioarchaeology, primatology, and paleoanthropology.
- Linguistic Anthropology: Semiotics, discourse analysis, language revitalization, and sociolinguistics.
- Multimodal and Public Anthropologies: Visual essays, soundscapes, digital media, and policy interventions engaging broader publics.
Bibliometric Indicators and Impact Factor Context
Bibliometric evaluation of American Anthropologist reflects the citation dynamics characteristic of qualitative and longitudinal social science research. While STEM journals often record high citation turnover within 24 months, anthropology monographs and articles accumulate scholarly impact over decades. Clarivate calculates the journal’s annual metrics within the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), where it is indexed under both the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI).
Recent annual data releases place the American Anthropologist impact factor at approximately 1.7 to 1.9 for the standard 2-year window, while its 5-year Journal Impact Factor hovers near 3.2. Scopus reports a CiteScore of approximately 2.5, placing the journal in the first quartile (Q1) of general anthropology publications. Consistent with responsible metrics guidelines such as DORA, evaluators should interpret this journal impact factor as an indicator of journal-level readership rather than a surrogate measure for the quality or methodology of any single empirical article.
Publishing Model, Submission, and Open Access
The journal is published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the AAA. Submissions are managed through an online peer-review portal under double-anonymous review. As a hybrid publication, authors may publish through standard subscription licensing without author-facing charges or opt for open-access dissemination via Article Processing Charges (APCs). Institutional transformative agreements administered through Wiley allow corresponding authors at participating universities to publish open access without paying individual APCs. AAA members receive digital access through the AnthroSource digital database.
Sources
American Anthropologist Editorial Office. (2026). About the Journal: Scope and Editorial Board. https://www.americananthropologist.org/about (read 2026-11-07).
American Anthropological Association. (2026). AAA Publishing Portfolio and AnthroSource Access. https://www.americananthro.org (read 2026-11-07).
Clarivate. (2026). Journal Citation Reports: American Anthropologist (SSCI and AHCI). https://mjl.clarivate.com (read 2026-11-07).
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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