Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2016
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journal rankings 2016
89 ranked journals · Subfield in Physics and Astronomy
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics has 89 ranked journals in 2016. The median journal has an OJR of 0.79, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.02 on 2015; Q1 starts at OJR 1.19. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Advances in Optics and Photonics, and Nature Photonics.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2016. 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 2013–2015, the window the 2016 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 of Physics and Astronomy (8)
89 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 2015. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2013–2015, the window the 2016 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2013–2015 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 2007 to 2016. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 18.85Q1 | 39.41 2.38 up from 2015 | 119 | 74% | — | ||
2Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 9.28Q1 | 20.81 6.05 up from 2015 | 36 | 31% | — | ||
3Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.22Q1 | 16.95 1.94 up from 2015 | 939 | 33% | $12,690 | ||
4Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.08Q1 | 17.24 0.79 down from 2015 | 163 | 78% | $4,680 | ||
5Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 6.52Q1 | 14.72 1.86 down from 2015 | 167 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
6Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 5.62Q1 | 9.36 1.75 down from 2015 | 81 | 32% | $5,230 | ||
7Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.14Q1 | 10.61 2.42 up from 2015 | 1,020 | 48% | $12,690 | ||
8Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.35Q1 | 9.72 3.18 up from 2015 | 497 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
9OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 4.06Q1 | 8.78 1.02 up from 2015 | 259 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
10Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.80Q1 | 8.90 0.83 up from 2015 | 9,366 | 85% | $3,750 | ||
11Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.60Q1 | 9.33 1.43 up from 2015 | 34 | 14% | $4,130 | ||
12International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.38Q1 | 5.34 0.79 down from 2015 | 45 | 15% | — | ||
13Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 2.32Q1 | 5.18 0.58 up from 2015 | 323 | 61% | — | ||
14Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 2.19Q1 | 5.67 0.13 up from 2015 | 1,614 | 36% | $4,500 | ||
15Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 1.91Q1 | 4.73 0.93 up from 2015 | 172 | 4% | — | ||
16New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.83Q1 | 3.94 0.11 up from 2015 | 2,648 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
17Physical Review BAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.81Q1 | 4.10 0.11 up from 2015 | 14,651 | 0% | $2,675 | ||
18Journal of Computational ChemistryWiley · United States | 1.62Q1 | 3.29 0.45 down from 2015 | 767 | 42% | $4,520 | ||
19Structural DynamicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 1.47Q1 | 3.52 0.11 down from 2015 | 74 | 100% | $2,200 | ||
20Comptes Rendus PhysiqueOAAcadémie des sciences · France | 1.42Q1 | 2.47 0.20 up from 2015 | 279 | 69% | — | ||
21BiointerphasesAmerican Institute of Physics · Germany | 1.32Q1 | 2.97 0.43 up from 2015 | 188 | 49% | — | ||
22The Journal of Physical Chemistry AAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.22Q1 | 3.02 0.08 up from 2015 | 4,094 | 17% | — | ||
23Annual Review of Condensed Matter PhysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.19Q1 | 21.00 6.28 up from 2015 | 47 | 84% | — | ||
24Frontiers in PhysicsOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.18Q2 | 2.42 0.42 up from 2015 | 193 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
25Annals of PhysicsElsevier BV · United States | 1.18Q2 | 2.49 0.03 up from 2015 | 804 | 64% | $3,160 | ||
26Physical Review AAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.17Q2 | 3.11 0.14 up from 2015 | 8,115 | 80% | $2,675 | ||
27Annalen der PhysikWiley · Germany | 1.11Q2 | 2.02 0.16 down from 2015 | 358 | 65% | $3,840 | ||
28The European Physical Journal PlusSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.10Q2 | 2.62 0.79 up from 2015 | 690 | 23% | $3,890 | ||
29Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative TransferElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.09Q2 | 2.47 0.66 down from 2015 | 923 | 27% | $2,870 | ||
30The Journal of Chemical PhysicsAmerican Institute of Physics · United States | 1.09Q2 | 3.07 0.08 up from 2015 | 8,191 | 44% | $3,500 | ||
31AtomsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.06Q2 | 2.07 0.22 up from 2015 | 46 | 100% | $1,810 | ||
32Annual Review of Physical ChemistryAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.05Q2 | 16.61 2.06 up from 2015 | 78 | 71% | — | ||
33Europhysics Letters (EPL)Institute of Physics · France | 1.05Q2 | 2.19 0.02 down from 2015 | 2,451 | 72% | $1,895 | ||
34Journal of Physics A Mathematical and TheoreticalInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 1.04Q2 | 1.85 0.01 down from 2015 | 1,897 | 91% | $3,325 | ||
35Atomic Data and Nuclear Data TablesElsevier BV · United States | 1.02Q2 | 2.15 0.34 down from 2015 | 77 | 47% | $3,030 | ||
36Frontiers of PhysicsHigher Education Press · China | 1.00Q2 | 2.06 0.70 down from 2015 | 226 | 39% | $3,890 | ||
37Laser Physics LettersIOP Publishing · Germany | 0.96Q2 | 2.49 0.16 down from 2015 | 880 | 56% | $3,325 | ||
38Physics-UspekhiInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 0.94Q2 | 1.93 0.59 down from 2015 | 390 | 15% | — | ||
39Applied Physics BSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.93Q2 | 2.13 0.22 up from 2015 | 949 | 28% | $4,090 | ||
40Physics Letters AElsevier BV | 0.88Q2 | 1.82 0.11 up from 2015 | 1,923 | 36% | $2,150 | ||
41Journal of the Optical Society of America BOptica Publishing Group · United States | 0.88Q2 | 2.09 0.10 up from 2015 | 1,250 | 29% | — | ||
42Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern PhysicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 0.83Q2 | 0.91 0.03 down from 2015 | 192 | 45% | $2,700 | ||
43Journal of OpticsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.80Q2 | 1.86 0.27 down from 2015 | 1,105 | 66% | $3,325 | ||
44Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.80Q2 | 1.83 0.21 down from 2015 | 1,222 | 72% | $3,325 | ||
45Journal of the Optical Society of America AOptica Publishing Group · United States | 0.79Q2 | 2.04 0.25 up from 2015 | 984 | 23% | — | ||
46Science China Physics Mechanics and AstronomySpringer Science+Business Media · China | 0.78Q3 | 2.15 0.51 up from 2015 | 738 | 29% | $3,590 | ||
47Molecular PhysicsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.77Q3 | 1.81 0.14 down from 2015 | 1,157 | 28% | — | ||
48The European Physical Journal BSpringer Science+Business Media · France | 0.76Q3 | 1.67 0.26 up from 2015 | 1,156 | 52% | $3,490 | ||
49Zeitschrift für Naturforschung ADe Gruyter · Germany | 0.75Q3 | 1.71 0.81 up from 2015 | 343 | 20% | $2,712 | ||
50Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related PhenomenaElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.72Q3 | 1.72no change | 470 | 24% | $3,170 |
Subfields of Physics and Astronomy, with Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics highlighted.
- Astronomy and Astrophysics107
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics89
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics68
- Statistical and Nonlinear Physics39
- Radiation24
- Condensed Matter Physics7
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics0
- Instrumentation0
Journals
Citations made in 2016. Corpus-wide, 77.2% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
15 additional Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2013–2015, 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: 2016. Publication window: 2013–2015. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 89
- Window papers (baseline)
- 117,344 +2.2% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 0.79 +2.0% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2013–2015 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 | 57 | 64 | 62 | 65 | 65 | 66 | 68 | 70 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 78 | 81 | 85 | 87 | 89 | 91 | 92 | 97 | 105 | 103 | 103 | 108 | 107 | 105 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 84,695 | 86,753 | 86,412 | 89,035 | 91,151 | 95,706 | 100,546 | 106,715 | 110,735 | 112,436 | 112,382 | 112,245 | 113,539 | 114,815 | 116,212 | 117,514 | 117,344 | 117,182 | 115,527 | 113,962 | 112,377 | 111,323 | 110,326 | 106,860 | 103,126 | 100,852 | |
| Median OJR | 0.710 | 0.60 | 0.59 | 0.642 | 0.640 | 0.77 | 0.807 | 0.783 | 0.89 | 0.86 | 0.84 | 0.95 | 0.83 | 0.778 | 0.82 | 0.813 | 0.79 | 0.80 | 0.76 | 0.75 | 0.706 | 0.67 | 0.662 | 0.68 | 0.657 | 0.70 |
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.