OpenJournalRank

Journal rankings · indicator year 2015

Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.

Domain ranking · 2015

Physical Sciences journal rankings 2015

5,957 ranked journals · Domain

Physical Sciences has 5,957 ranked journals in 2015. The median journal has an OJR of 0.78, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.03 on 2014; Q1 starts at OJR 1.43. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, and Progress in Materials Science.

Ranks and citation indicators: 2015. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.

Ranked journals

Journals whose main subfield sits in this category and that published at least 30 citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) in 2012–2014, the window the 2015 score is computed on.

5,957
31% of all ranked journals
Median OJR

The OpenJournalRank Indicator (OJR) is a free, publicly available metric of a journal’s field-normalized citation impact, computed from open OpenAlex citation data. It compares citations to a journal’s papers from the previous three years with the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and values can be compared across fields. It is computed with the NCI3 method.

The middle OJR among ranked journals in this category: half score higher, half lower. 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type.

The dot is this category, the solid tick is the median of all ranked journals and the dashed line is the world average.

0.78-0.03 vs 2014
This domainAll 0.88World 1.00
Open-access journals

Share of ranked journals in this category that are fully open access, so every paper is free to read. Hybrid journals, which sell subscriptions and open single papers for a fee, are not counted.

29%
All fields: 29%
Median listed APC

Median list price of the article processing charge, in US dollars, among ranked journals in this category that list a price above zero. Journals with a listed APC of $0 and journals with no known price are left out of this median. The At a glance table below gives a second median that includes the $0 prices.

$3,220
Median positive listed APC: $3,220 among 2,645 journals. Another 37 list $0; 3,275 have no known price. All fields: $3,390.

Fields in Physical Sciences (10)

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5,957 ranked journals

Filters

Quartile

Quartiles split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. Q1 is the top quarter and Q4 the bottom quarter.

They are computed within the list on screen, so a journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 in the global ranking.

Access
APC (list price)
Loading every ranked journal in this list…
Physical Sciences ranking, 2015

Rank is the position by OJR within the list on screen; 1 is the highest.

OJR is field-normalized 3-year citation impact: 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so values compare across fields.

The badge is the journal’s quartile in this list.

OJR

Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is not field-normalized, so compare it only between journals of the same field.

▲ or ▼ is the change from 2014. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor.

Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2012–2014, the window the 2015 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked.

Share of the journal’s 2012–2014 papers that are free to read in any open-access form. The green OA tag next to a title marks a fully open-access journal.

List price of the article processing charge in US dollars. “$0 listed” means the listed price is zero; a dash means no price is listed.

The line is the journal’s OJR from 2006 to 2015.

Compare
1Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States
19.40Q137.02 2.40 up from 201412763%—
2IEEE Communications Surveys & TutorialsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
17.71Q121.27 1.66 up from 201426828%$2,645
3Progress in Materials ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom
17.32Q130.98 2.25 up from 20146925%$6,040
4ACM Computing SurveysAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
16.20Q114.15 0.76 up from 201416929%—
5Progress in Energy and Combustion ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom
15.22Q120.30 2.35 down from 20146527%$6,990
13.81Q132.00 14.00 up from 20143229%$6,150
7Progress in Polymer ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom
13.67Q127.61 2.86 up from 201417619%$6,500
8User Modeling and User-Adapted InteractionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands
12.56Q15.50 2.78 down from 20143540%$3,290
9IEEE Transactions on Cloud ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
11.88Q17.70 1.42 up from 201410519%$2,645
10Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States
11.41Q116.33 1.28 down from 20145974%$3,880
11Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands
11.19Q117.90 3.09 down from 201415664%$6,240
12Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom
10.54Q118.03 7.70 down from 201418681%$4,680
13ACM Transactions on Computer SystemsAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
10.05Q110.04 5.18 up from 20143837%—
9.95Q19.14 0.13 up from 201473929%$2,645
15Accounts of Chemical ResearchAmerican Chemical Society · United States
9.95Q123.03 0.45 down from 201480638%$4,500
16Nature MaterialsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
9.81Q121.56 2.36 up from 201490932%$12,690
17Energy & Environmental ScienceRoyal Society of Chemistry · United Kingdom
9.80Q127.17 5.73 up from 20141,23338%—
18Nature NanotechnologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
9.42Q118.54 0.16 down from 201483134%$12,690
19Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
8.08Q115.01 0.42 up from 20141,02335%$12,690
20IEEE Internet of Things JournalInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
8.05Q19.73no 2014 value7321%$2,645—
21International Journal of Computer VisionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands
7.99Q110.91 3.49 up from 201426035%$4,090
22The International Journal of Robotics ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
7.98Q17.87 0.63 up from 201429322%$4,400
23IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy SystemsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
7.91Q17.13 0.98 down from 201442622%$2,645
24ACM Transactions on the WebAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
7.70Q13.24 1.58 down from 20146636%—
25Applied Physics ReviewsAmerican Institute of Physics · United States
7.69Q114.85no 2014 value3350%—
26Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom
7.67Q116.58 0.06 down from 2014111100%$4,190
27IEEE Communications MagazineInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
7.45Q19.81 2.53 up from 20141,07626%$2,995
28IEEE Signal Processing MagazineInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
7.43Q16.41 1.48 down from 201439132%—
29IEEE Transactions on Services ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
7.37Q13.42 0.52 down from 201415915%$2,645
30Progress in Aerospace SciencesElsevier BV · United Kingdom
7.24Q14.19 0.18 up from 201411627%$5,860
7.23Q14.06 0.87 down from 201468100%$1,790
32AutomaticaElsevier BV · United Kingdom
7.19Q16.75 0.17 up from 20141,26029%$3,760
33Nature Climate ChangeNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
7.04Q19.97 0.48 up from 20141,02333%$12,690
34IEEE Transactions on Software EngineeringIEEE Computer Society · United States
7.04Q15.19 0.30 up from 201422730%$2,645
35ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and MethodologyAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
7.00Q15.09 0.26 up from 20149626%—
36Journal of Web SemanticsOAElsevier BV · Netherlands
6.97Q14.48 4.03 down from 20148632%$1,700
37Transactions of the Association for Computational LinguisticsOAAssociation for Computational Linguistics
6.92Q17.01 2.57 up from 201491100%—
38Future Generation Computer SystemsElsevier BV · Netherlands
6.86Q15.28 0.28 down from 201452528%$3,000
39IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary ComputationInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
6.81Q18.21 1.34 up from 201420728%$2,645
6.79Q116.35 1.85 up from 20143,47329%$6,070
41Annual Reviews in ControlElsevier BV · United Kingdom
6.77Q14.77 1.11 down from 20148037%$3,940
42ACM SIGKDD Explorations NewsletterAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
6.75Q111.31 5.59 up from 2014509%—
43Computational LinguisticsOAAssociation for Computational Linguistics · United States
6.66Q16.79 0.33 up from 20148691%—
44IEEE Transactions on Industrial InformaticsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
6.61Q18.39 0.22 down from 201457121%$2,645
45IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in CommunicationsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
6.53Q18.45 0.49 up from 201483428%$2,645
46IEEE Wireless CommunicationsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States
6.44Q18.90 1.64 up from 201431913%$2,995
47Nature ChemistryNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
6.41Q114.87 1.85 up from 201485025%$12,690
48Proceedings of the VLDB EndowmentAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States
6.33Q15.24 0.88 down from 201465317%—
49Ecological MonographsWiley · United States
6.31Q19.70 1.16 up from 20147528%$3,970
50Empirical Software EngineeringSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands
6.30Q13.03 0.65 down from 201414632%$2,290

Citations made in 2015. Corpus-wide, 78.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.

1,902 additional Physical Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2012–2014, at least 80% of them with a subfield, and a positive world-average expectation. Ranks are within the whole category; filters hide rows without re-ranking. OJR excludes self-citations.

Rising journals

At a glance

Indicator year: 2015. Publication window: 2012–2014. How these summaries are calculated

Ranked journals
5,957
Window papers (baseline)
6,314,481 +11.8% from indicator year 2012
Median OJR
0.783 -6.8% from indicator year 2012
Rising journals (2025)
544

Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2012–2014 in all journals of the world-average baseline, including non-core journals, counted by each paper’s own subfield. They are not the papers of the ranked journals alone.

Category by indicator year
MeasureYear series20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Ranked journals2,9783,1303,3083,4563,5683,6763,7723,9844,2444,4904,6574,8785,1525,4405,7155,9576,1386,2646,3796,5156,5926,6536,7296,7566,7536,689
Window papers (baseline)2,394,5432,616,2662,843,8103,093,2983,313,6833,580,2013,872,5054,185,6484,493,6454,800,4865,075,8065,354,1645,648,4735,894,3896,132,4976,314,4816,413,3696,301,5595,933,0825,573,3535,450,8755,628,3435,801,0095,736,4955,650,3535,795,472
Median OJR0.6830.6980.740.7840.790.8050.830.8390.850.86940.86920.860.8400.820.8120.7830.760.720.6950.6810.6790.6760.6660.66230.66220.667
Category context (2025)
MeasureCategory statisticEligible population
Journal self-citation shareMedian: 4.4%5,226 journals
Retracted papers per 1,000Pooled rate: 2.726 per 1,0004,677 journals
Output growthMedian: +1.1%6,002 journals
Open access shareMedian: 61.9%6,689 journals
Listed APC (USD)Median including $0 listed prices: $3,0903,753 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices
International collaboration shareMedian: 25.2%6,406 journals
Review shareMedian: 0.0%6,689 journals
Articles-only OJRMedian: 0.676,602 journals
Uncited shareMedian: 33.6%6,689 journals
Citation concentrationMedian: 45.5%6,676 journals

How to read these rankings

OJR, the OpenJournalRank Indicator
A field-normalized 3-year citation impact, computed from OpenAlex with the NCI3 method. It divides the citations a journal’s papers received by the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and 2.00 means twice as many citations as expected. Because it is normalized, it can be compared across fields. Read the methodology
Quartiles
Q1 to Q4 split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. A journal’s quartile depends on the list: the same journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 among all journals.
Impact factor (2-year)
Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is easy to compare with familiar impact factors but is not field-normalized, so compare it only within a field. It is not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. Why it differs from the Journal Impact Factor
Rank ranges
Each rank in the latest year carries a likely range from 1,000 resamples of the journal’s papers. Where two journals’ ranges overlap, the data cannot tell them apart, so treat neighbouring ranks as ties.