Perspectives on Psychological Science: Metrics

The journal-level citation metrics for Perspectives on Psychological Science—published bimonthly by SAGE Publications for the Association for Psychological Science (APS)—primarily encompass its Clarivate Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and Scopus CiteScore. According to publisher and bibliographic data verified on 2026-11-07, the journal holds a two-year Journal Impact Factor of 9.5 and a five-year Impact Factor of 13.9, placing it in Quartile 1 (Q1) of the Web of Science category Psychology, Multidisciplinary.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 7 Nov 2026

What is the Perspectives on Psychological Science impact factor?

The impact factor is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) that Clarivate publishes each year in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for journals indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index. Clarivate reports a two-year JIF and a five-year JIF, and ranks each journal by quartile within its Web of Science subject category. The current figures, year by year, are listed in JCR and on the journal’s page at SAGE. Because the value changes with every JCR release, always quote it together with its JCR release year. Elsevier’s Scopus indexes the journal as well and reports a separate measure, CiteScore, alongside the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR).

Fast-publishing, high-volume venues (see the Scientific Reports impact factor entry for a contrast) accumulate citations differently from a journal that publishes longer theoretical and review articles.

How the metric is calculated

The Clarivate two-year Journal Impact Factor is the mean number of citations received in a given year by the citable items the journal published in the previous two years:

JIF = (Citations in Year T to papers published in Years T-1 and T-2) / (Total citable items published in Years T-1 and T-2)

The five-year JIF applies the same ratio over a five-year window. For journals that publish theoretical frameworks and methodological critiques, which are often adopted and cited slowly, the five-year figure is usually the better guide to citation behaviour. Researchers following the literature can combine PsycINFO search strategies with manuscripts deposited on PsyArXiv.

Responsible use of journal metrics

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recommends against using journal-based metrics such as the impact factor as a substitute for assessing the quality of individual research articles. Citation conventions also differ between fields, for example between psychological science and clinical medicine, as discussed in psychology vs psychiatry, so a journal’s value should not be compared across disciplines without context.

Frequently asked questions

Who publishes Perspectives on Psychological Science?

SAGE Publications publishes it on behalf of the Association for Psychological Science.

How often does it appear?

It is published bimonthly.

Where can I find the current impact factor?

In Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (via an institutional subscription) and on the journal’s SAGE page. Cite the value with its release year.

Does the impact factor show the quality of one article?

No. It is an average over the whole journal, and DORA advises against using it to judge individual papers or authors.

Sources

SAGE Publications and the Association for Psychological Science: Perspectives on Psychological Science journal home page, https://journals.sagepub.com/home/pps (checked 2026-11-07).
Clarivate: Journal Citation Reports, https://jcr.clarivate.com/ (checked 2026-11-07).
Elsevier: Scopus, https://www.scopus.com/ (checked 2026-11-07).
San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment: https://sfdora.org/ (checked 2026-11-07).
Wikipedia: Perspectives on Psychological Science (publisher, frequency, start year), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspectives_on_Psychological_Science (checked 2026-11-07).

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