Top depression journals

Over 264 million people worldwide are affected by depression, which is ranked by the World Health Organization as the main contributor to global disability. Anxiety disorders are a common co-morbidity of depression and rates of both continue to increase and effect men and women of all ages.

Last month we supported health professionals working in mental health with our go-to list of mental health journals. This month, we narrow our mental health lens and zoom in on journals specifically related to depression, including major depressive disorders, bipolar affective disorder and post-natal depression. Because anxiety often goes hand-in-hand with depression, we’ve included a few well-ranked anxiety journals.

Journal metrics

Impact factor: is based on Web of Science data and only includes documents such as articles and reviews. It measures the average number of times an article is cited by other journal articles and documents. An impact factor of 3 or more is considered good, 1 is average. This list uses the 2-year impact factor from SCImago.

CiteScore: is based on Scopus data for all indexed documents, including articles, letters and editorials. Like impact factor, it measures the average citations received per document published in a journal over a 4-year time period.

Impact factor and CiteScore have the most meaning when used to compare journals within the same therapeutic area of subject. Many academics value a journal’s impact factor over its Citescore; therefore they will use the impact factor to rank other journals in the same field.

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): measures the citations received from a journal but it also considers the importance of the journal where the citations have come from. This measurement can be helpful to rank journals within the same field and category.

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): measures citations weighted by subject field. A SNIP over 1.0 means a journal has more citations than average.

Depression and Anxiety

Impact Factor: 5.879

CiteScore: 9.2

SJR: 2.634

SNIP: 2.202

Depression and Anxiety is the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. It publishes research papers and reviews in each monthly issue and provides free and open access to some of its content.

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Impact Factor: 4.643

CiteScore: 6.6

SJR: 1.859

SNIP: 1.708

The Journal of Anxiety Disorders focuses on anxiety and other related disorders. Recent articles include anxiety and depression during COVID-19, the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and depression and computer therapy for anxiety and depression. Published monthly by Elsevier.

Journal of Affective Disorders

Impact Factor: 4.435

CiteScore: 6.3

SJR: 1.892

SNIP: 1.765

Published by Elsevier, the Journal of Affective Disorders is the official journal of the International Society for Affective Disorders. Each issue includes research and review articles that focus on affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and mania. Some content is open access.

Depression Research and Treatment

Impact Factor: 3.438

CiteScore: 3.2

SJR: 0.738

SNIP: 1.95

Depression Research and Treatment is an open access, peer reviewed journal that publishes a range of content related to depression. Recent articles include depression and anxiety in adults with polycystic ovarian syndrome and the impact of abuse on depression.

International Journal of Bipolar Disorders

Impact Factor: 3.418

CiteScore: 5.4

SJR: 1.131

SNIP: 1.188

Published by SpringerOpen, the International Journal of Bipolar Disorders publishes all of its content as open access. It includes research articles, reviews, case reports and guidelines that focus on the clinical, psychological and biological aspects of bipolar disorder.

Bipolar Disorders

Impact Factor: 3.175

CiteScore: 7.6

SJR: 2.285

SNIP: 1.886

Bipolar Disorders is the official journal of The International Society for Bipolar Disorders. It publishes research, reviews, correspondence and other content about the cause and treatment of bipolar disorder and related conditions. Recent articles include the prevalence of migraine headaches in adolescents with bipolar disorder, and lithium treatment. Many of the articles are free and open access.

Anxiety, Stress and Coping

Impact Factor: 2.579

CiteScore: 3.9

SJR: 1.047

SNIP: 1.355

As its name suggests, this journal publishes articles related to anxiety and the impact of stress and emotions. It’s published 6 times a year by Taylor & Francis and most read articles include self-compassion and social anxiety disorder, and test anxiety, perfectionism, goal orientation and academic performance. Some articles are open access.

Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynaecology

Impact Factor: 2.289

CiteScore: 4.2

SJR: 0.717

SNIP: 1.308

The Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynaecology is most relevant for health professionals working with women and families during pregnancy and post-natal. The focus of the journal is the psychosomatic and psychosocial aspects of women’s health, and unsurprisingly recent issues include research and reviews about mental health and wellbeing in pregnancy during COVID-19.

References

Depression, World Health Organization

Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders, World Health Organization

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Scopus