Media Psychology

Media Psychology is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 2 of Psychology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Media Influence and Health, Impact of Technology on Adolescents and Media, Gender, and Advertising, together about 41.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Media Psychology is an interdisciplinary journal publishing theoretically oriented, empirical research on the psychology of media use, processes, and effects. We welcome reports of empirical research, empirically-grounded theory papers, state-of-the-art systematic reviews, replication projects, and meta-analyses offering a theoretically consequential synthesis of primary research in a pivotal area. We encourage preregistration and the inclusion of supplementary materials (stimuli, measures, pre-analysis plans, deidentified data, and code) consistent with Taylor & Francis’s Basic Basic Data Sharing Policy. Besides “Research Articles” and “Reviews”, we also publish “Registered Reports”, in which the Theory and Method sections are evaluated before the start of data collection. Manuscripts are judged by the degree to which they contribute to theory and advance the body of knowledge about the psychology of media uses, processes, or effects. The journal evaluates manuscripts based on the importance of the question, theoretical precision, methodological rigor, and evidential value rather than on whether the findings support the hypotheses. Editorial Priorities While the journal is open to a broad range of methods and approaches (see our recent Editorial), we have noticed a recurring pattern of submissions that are unlikely to make it through peer review. Given our focus on media psychology, empirical inquiry, and theory advancement, the following types of submissions are rarely sent out for external review: Studies that advance causal claims based on cross-sectional data: Manuscripts drawing causal or directional conclusions from a single wave of cross-sectional data (e.g., PLS-SEM fit to one-time survey data) are rarely accepted, as such designs support correlational, not causal, claims. Additionally, purely descriptive cross-sectional designs that do not directly and clearly test theory are also unlikely to be successful. This is especially the case if the associations described are already well-established in the literature. Content analysis without psychological mechanism(s): Content or textual analyses are valuable tools for documenting patterns in media content, but as a stand-alone method—without connection to audience data on cognition, emotion, or behavior—they fall outside the journal’s focus on psychological processes and effects. This also includes case studies evaluating single media messages, such as in-depth analyses of single films, video games, e

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Multiple

CAS Journal Ranking

JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website

• JCR Q1 · best quartile · 2025
• CiteScore Q1 · 2025

Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website

Database indexing

SSCIAHCIScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

Web of SciencePsycINFOCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: ProQuest, EBSCOhost, E-psyche, Social Sciences Index, ProQuest online research databases

As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

2.96LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

3Publisher website · 2026-10-01

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

4.9Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

7.8LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher) 2025

7.8Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

1.48LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR (publisher) 2025

1.48Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SNIP 2026-06

1.76LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP (publisher) 2025

1.76Publisher website · 2026-10-01

h-index

118OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

560OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

2.8OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

3.3%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

22.79%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

61LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher)

422,000Publisher website · 2026-10-01

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Figures by source

Acceptance rate (publisher)

7%Publisher website · 2026-10-01

Submission to first decision

14 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

First decision after review

79 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Acceptance to publication

19 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

1521-3269

Electronic ISSN

1532-785X

Latest issue on the website

Volume 29, Issue 5 (2026)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗LetPub
• Submission system ↗Publisher website
• Special issues ↗Publisher website