Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A researcher consulting Sociology of Sport Journal's 2.4 Journal Impact Factor and 4.3 Scopus CiteScore when preparing a critical study on gender equity in collegiate athletics for submission.
- Is an instance
A departmental tenure and promotion committee reviewing an applicant's sports sociology journal publication record while applying DORA principles rather than relying on journal-level metrics as proxies for individual article quality.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Treating Sociology of Sport Journal's CiteScore (4.3, Elsevier/Scopus four-year window) as identical to its Clarivate Journal Impact Factor (2.4, two-year window).
- Not an instance
Inferring the methodological rigour or scholarly merit of an individual article solely from the journal's Journal Impact Factor.
Editorial commentary
Quick answer: The Sociology of Sport Journal (SSJ) has a Journal Impact Factor of 2.4 for the 2025 JCR data year (Clarivate Journal Citation Reports, released 2026) and a 5-year Journal Impact Factor of 2.6. Published by Human Kinetics as the official journal of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS), the journal also holds a Scopus CiteScore of 4.3. In accordance with responsible research assessment standards, these journal-level metrics describe citation distributions across the entire title rather than evaluating individual published papers.
The Sociology of Sport Journal (Print ISSN: 0741-1235; Online ISSN: 1543-2785) is the flagship journal of sport sociology, published quarterly by Human Kinetics since 1984. As established within the foundational discipline of sociology, the publication provides a dedicated scholarly forum for structural, cultural, and political analyses of sport, physical activity, and bodily practices.
What the Journal Impact Factor measures for SSJ
The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) published in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports is a journal-level citation ratio. For the 2025 JCR data year, SSJ’s Impact Factor of 2.4 represents the number of citations received during that data year to citable items (original articles and reviews) published by the journal across the preceding two years, divided by the total number of citable items published in those years.
In addition to the 2-year JIF, Clarivate reports a 5-year Journal Impact Factor of 2.6 for SSJ. This extended window provides a more stabilized reflection of citation patterns in social science disciplines, where empirical scholarship and theoretical frameworks often accumulate citations across longer cycles than in laboratory sciences.
Sociology of Sport Journal metric profile
Bibliographic and bibliometric indicators confirmed from publisher records and official indexing databases include:
- Title: Sociology of Sport Journal (SSJ)
- Publishing Partner: Human Kinetics on behalf of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS)
- Print ISSN: 0741-1235; Online ISSN: 1543-2785
- Journal Impact Factor (2-Year): 2.4 (2025 JCR data year)
- 5-Year Journal Impact Factor: 2.6 (2025 JCR data year)
- Scopus CiteScore: 4.3 (calculated over a four-year citation window by Elsevier)
- Primary Indexing: Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, and NLM Catalog (Medline abbreviation: Sociol Sport J)
CiteScore vs Journal Impact Factor in sports sociology
Researchers evaluating this sports sociology journal frequently encounter both Clarivate’s JIF and Elsevier’s CiteScore. These two metrics evaluate publication performance differently:
- Citation Window: Clarivate’s JIF utilizes a 2-year publication window, whereas CiteScore incorporates a 4-year calculation window.
- Content Scope: JIF divides citations by citable items (articles and reviews), while CiteScore counts all document types published across the four-year span in its denominator.
- Score Difference: For SSJ, the 4-year CiteScore stands at 4.3, reflecting strong citation accrual across the wider window compared to the 2.4 2-year JIF.
Editorial scope and research community role
Founded with Jay Coakley serving as founding editor from 1984 to 1989, the Sociology of Sport Journal welcomes qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical research examining sport as a cultural institution. The journal investigates intersections of physical culture with gender, race, social class, political economy, globalization, and health institutions. Operating under a traditional subscription model with optional open-access hybrid options, the journal charges no mandatory submission fees or article processing charges for standard publishing.
Responsible assessment and DORA guidelines
Under the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), academic institutions and funding bodies are advised against using journal-level metrics as proxies for individual article quality or researcher competence. While SSJ’s impact factor of 2.4 situates it prominently within specialized sociological literature, individual studies must be assessed on their methodological rigour, theoretical depth, and substantive scholarly contribution.
Sources
- Human Kinetics, Sociology of Sport Journal Overview and Editorial Scope, journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/ssj-overview.xml (verified 2026-11-07).
- Crossref, Journal Record for Sociology of Sport Journal (ISSN 0741-1235 / 1543-2785), api.crossref.org/journals/0741-1235 (verified 2026-11-07).
- National Library of Medicine, NLM Catalog Record for Sociol Sport J (ID 9882612), eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi (verified 2026-11-07).
- North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS), Official Publications and Journal Governance, nasss.org (verified 2026-11-07).
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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