Journal rankings · indicator year 2015
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2015
Physics and Astronomy journal rankings 2015
324 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Physics and Astronomy has 324 ranked journals in 2015. The median journal has an OJR of 0.71, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.04 on 2014; Q1 starts at OJR 1.23. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Physics Reports, and Reports on Progress in Physics.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2015. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subfields in Physics and Astronomy (8)
Up to Physical Sciences324 ranked journals
Filters
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. | 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 | 19.40Q1 | 37.02 2.40 up from 2014 | 127 | 63% | — | ||
2Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 11.19Q1 | 17.90 3.09 down from 2014 | 156 | 64% | $6,240 | ||
3Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 10.54Q1 | 18.03 7.70 down from 2014 | 186 | 81% | $4,680 | ||
4Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.08Q1 | 15.01 0.42 up from 2014 | 1,023 | 35% | $12,690 | ||
5Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 7.67Q1 | 16.58 0.06 down from 2014 | 111 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
6The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesOAInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 5.97Q1 | 12.13 0.17 down from 2014 | 512 | 97% | $4,499 | ||
7Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.19Q1 | 8.19 1.00 down from 2014 | 956 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
8Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 4.75Q1 | 11.11 2.10 up from 2014 | 111 | 33% | $5,230 | ||
9OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 4.09Q1 | 7.76no 2014 value | 75 | 100% | $3,208 | — | |
10Space Science ReviewsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.89Q1 | 7.06 0.58 down from 2014 | 249 | 66% | $5,290 | ||
11Reviews in Mineralogy and GeochemistryMineralogical Society of America · United States | 3.86Q1 | 6.45 0.89 up from 2014 | 90 | 71% | — | ||
12Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.80Q1 | 8.07 0.13 up from 2014 | 10,739 | 83% | $3,750 | ||
13Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.46Q1 | 6.54 0.36 down from 2014 | 396 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
14Journal of Complex NetworksOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.04Q1 | 4.13 0.41 up from 2014 | 68 | 48% | $4,533 | ||
15Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.03Q1 | 7.90 1.61 up from 2014 | 32 | 46% | $4,130 | ||
16The Astrophysical Journal LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.99Q1 | 6.08no change | 2,015 | 100% | $2,400 | ||
17SIAM ReviewSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics · United States | 2.93Q1 | 3.25 0.70 up from 2014 | 108 | 30% | — | ||
18International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.85Q1 | 6.13 2.18 down from 2014 | 47 | 27% | — | ||
19Physics of the Dark UniverseElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.84Q1 | 5.39 2.97 down from 2014 | 67 | 67% | $3,660 | ||
20Progress in Particle and Nuclear PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.61Q1 | 10.89 6.37 up from 2014 | 128 | 62% | $4,780 | ||
21Physics Letters BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.49Q1 | 5.18 1.33 down from 2014 | 2,537 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
22Annual Review of Astronomy and AstrophysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 2.41Q1 | 40.96 5.03 up from 2014 | 42 | 72% | — | ||
23Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical SimulationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.40Q1 | 2.84 0.28 down from 2014 | 1,174 | 19% | $3,710 | ||
24Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society LettersOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.36Q1 | 4.83 0.02 down from 2014 | 546 | 98% | $1,451 | ||
25Nonlinear DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.35Q1 | 3.34 0.33 down from 2014 | 1,541 | 10% | $4,790 | ||
26The Astronomical JournalOAInstitute of Physics · United States | 2.34Q1 | 4.51 0.08 down from 2014 | 968 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
27Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 2.31Q1 | 4.60no 2014 value | 118 | 55% | — | — | |
28Publications of the Astronomical Society of the PacificInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 2.30Q1 | 4.77 1.05 up from 2014 | 352 | 76% | $3,325 | ||
29Computer Physics CommunicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.26Q1 | 3.81 0.38 up from 2014 | 884 | 54% | $4,160 | ||
30The European Physical Journal COASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.24Q1 | 5.38 0.14 up from 2014 | 1,383 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
31The Astrophysical JournalOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.21Q1 | 6.22 0.13 down from 2014 | 8,706 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
32Journal of Geophysical Research PlanetsWiley · United States | 2.19Q1 | 4.44 0.86 down from 2014 | 319 | 71% | $4,070 | ||
33Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 2.15Q1 | 5.53 0.65 down from 2014 | 1,617 | 38% | $4,500 | ||
34Chinese Physics CIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.06Q1 | 3.90 2.53 up from 2014 | 689 | 79% | $2,410 | ||
35New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.94Q1 | 3.83 0.05 down from 2014 | 2,639 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
36Astronomy and AstrophysicsOAEDP Sciences · France | 1.93Q1 | 5.34 0.70 up from 2014 | 5,443 | 100% | $1,865 | ||
37Publications of the Astronomical Society of AustraliaCambridge University Press · Australia | 1.91Q1 | 4.01 0.50 up from 2014 | 145 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
38Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 1.91Q1 | 5.77 0.30 down from 2014 | 1,807 | 99% | $3,290 | ||
39Journal of Space Weather and Space ClimateOAEDP Open · France | 1.84Q1 | 4.03 1.38 up from 2014 | 87 | 100% | $1,413 | ||
40Journal of Nonlinear ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.84Q1 | 2.05 0.61 down from 2014 | 113 | 58% | $3,290 | ||
41Nuclear Physics BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.82Q1 | 4.07 0.50 down from 2014 | 833 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
42Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 1.81Q1 | 3.80 0.30 down from 2014 | 85 | 7% | — | ||
43Network ScienceCambridge University Press · United States | 1.74Q1 | 1.92 0.50 down from 2014 | 50 | 65% | $3,550 | ||
44Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical PhysicsInternational Press of Boston · United States | 1.70Q1 | 2.65 0.27 up from 2014 | 85 | 100% | — | ||
45Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.69Q1 | 5.25 0.22 down from 2014 | 7,660 | 97% | $3,046 | ||
46Physics-UspekhiInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 1.69Q1 | 2.52 2.57 down from 2014 | 399 | 12% | — | ||
47Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering SciencesRoyal Society · United Kingdom | 1.68Q1 | 2.46 0.07 down from 2014 | 630 | 71% | — | ||
48Journal of Artificial Societies and Social SimulationOAUniversity of Surrey · United Kingdom | 1.65Q1 | 1.60 0.27 up from 2014 | 204 | 100% | $1,300 | ||
49GalaxiesOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.65Q1 | 3.18 1.49 up from 2014 | 41 | 100% | $1,689 | ||
50Astroparticle PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.65Q1 | 3.37 0.15 down from 2014 | 347 | 80% | $2,920 |
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.
90 additional Physics and Astronomy 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.
At a glance
Indicator year: 2015. Publication window: 2012–2014. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 324
- Window papers (baseline)
- 376,730 +6.3% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 0.71 +9.1% from indicator year 2012
- Rising journals (2025)
- 36Comparison-group list (36)
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.
| Measure | Year series | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranked journals | 220 | 234 | 232 | 241 | 243 | 250 | 252 | 261 | 269 | 273 | 276 | 291 | 303 | 310 | 321 | 324 | 334 | 343 | 348 | 367 | 380 | 379 | 368 | 368 | 361 | 358 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 239,411 | 246,506 | 254,602 | 264,968 | 276,497 | 287,864 | 301,824 | 318,045 | 328,993 | 337,594 | 340,171 | 347,983 | 354,503 | 362,347 | 368,160 | 376,730 | 379,807 | 383,796 | 380,664 | 378,685 | 375,462 | 371,519 | 367,990 | 360,929 | 353,510 | 350,521 | |
| Median OJR | 0.58340 | 0.56 | 0.57 | 0.58338 | 0.602 | 0.627 | 0.67 | 0.683 | 0.643 | 0.681 | 0.69 | 0.648 | 0.653 | 0.634 | 0.675 | 0.71 | 0.662 | 0.660 | 0.631 | 0.614 | 0.640 | 0.613 | 0.59 | 0.652 | 0.600 | 0.62 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 6.4% | 293 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.285 per 1,000 | 278 journals |
| Output growth | Median: +0.6% | 326 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 73.4% | 358 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,000 | 213 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 30.1% | 348 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 358 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.61 | 352 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 38.3% | 358 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 48.2% | 356 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.