Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2016
Physics and Astronomy journal rankings 2016
334 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Physics and Astronomy has 334 ranked journals in 2016. The median OJR fell 0.05 on 2015 to 0.66, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.18. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Advances in Optics and Photonics, and Physics Reports.
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 in Physics and Astronomy (8)
Up to Physical Sciences334 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% | — | ||
3Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 9.07Q1 | 19.03 1.13 up from 2015 | 153 | 79% | $6,240 | ||
4Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.22Q1 | 16.95 1.94 up from 2015 | 939 | 33% | $12,690 | ||
5Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 8.08Q1 | 17.24 0.79 down from 2015 | 163 | 78% | $4,680 | ||
6The Astronomy and Astrophysics ReviewSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 7.26Q1 | 11.32 2.46 down from 2015 | 31 | 82% | $5,290 | ||
7Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 6.52Q1 | 14.72 1.86 down from 2015 | 167 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
8The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesOAInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 5.90Q1 | 10.49 1.65 down from 2015 | 549 | 98% | $4,499 | ||
9Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 5.62Q1 | 9.36 1.75 down from 2015 | 81 | 32% | $5,230 | ||
10Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.14Q1 | 10.61 2.42 up from 2015 | 1,020 | 48% | $12,690 | ||
11Progress in Particle and Nuclear PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.57Q1 | 12.39 1.51 up from 2015 | 65 | 73% | $4,780 | ||
12Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.35Q1 | 9.72 3.18 up from 2015 | 497 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
13Space Science ReviewsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.27Q1 | 7.62 0.55 up from 2015 | 258 | 63% | $5,290 | ||
14OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 4.06Q1 | 8.78 1.02 up from 2015 | 259 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
15Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.80Q1 | 8.90 0.83 up from 2015 | 9,366 | 85% | $3,750 | ||
16Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.60Q1 | 9.33 1.43 up from 2015 | 34 | 14% | $4,130 | ||
17Reviews in Mineralogy and GeochemistryMineralogical Society of America · United States | 3.59Q1 | 4.83 1.62 down from 2015 | 111 | — | — | ||
18SIAM ReviewSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics · United States | 3.15Q1 | 4.16 0.91 up from 2015 | 106 | 36% | — | ||
19The Astrophysical Journal LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.01Q1 | 6.50 0.42 up from 2015 | 1,942 | 100% | $2,400 | ||
20Publications of the Astronomical Society of the PacificInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 2.95Q1 | 4.70 0.08 down from 2015 | 317 | 100% | $3,325 | ||
21Publications of the Astronomical Society of AustraliaCambridge University Press · Australia | 2.75Q1 | 5.39 1.38 up from 2015 | 149 | 98% | $3,550 | ||
22Physics of the Dark UniverseElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.66Q1 | 5.81 0.42 up from 2015 | 71 | 84% | $3,660 | ||
23Journal of Complex NetworksOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.61Q1 | 4.14 0.01 up from 2015 | 101 | 57% | $4,533 | ||
24Annual Review of Astronomy and AstrophysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 2.44Q1 | 37.77 3.19 down from 2015 | 44 | 81% | — | ||
25Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society LettersOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.39Q1 | 5.07 0.23 up from 2015 | 558 | 97% | $1,451 | ||
26International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.38Q1 | 5.34 0.79 down from 2015 | 45 | 15% | — | ||
27Nonlinear DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.36Q1 | 3.91 0.57 up from 2015 | 1,834 | 9% | $4,790 | ||
28Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 2.32Q1 | 5.18 0.58 up from 2015 | 323 | 61% | — | ||
29Computer Physics CommunicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.29Q1 | 4.37 0.56 up from 2015 | 894 | 54% | $4,160 | ||
30Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 2.19Q1 | 5.67 0.13 up from 2015 | 1,614 | 36% | $4,500 | ||
31The Astrophysical JournalOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.18Q1 | 6.25 0.03 up from 2015 | 8,672 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
32The European Physical Journal COASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.16Q1 | 6.00 0.62 up from 2015 | 1,576 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
33Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical SimulationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.12Q1 | 3.01 0.17 up from 2015 | 1,103 | 25% | $3,710 | ||
34Physics Letters BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.07Q1 | 5.28 0.10 up from 2015 | 2,534 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
35The Astronomical JournalOAInstitute of Physics · United States | 2.05Q1 | 4.34 0.17 down from 2015 | 1,017 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
36Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fieldsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 2.00Q1 | 4.84 0.15 up from 2015 | 10,168 | — | — | ||
37Chinese Physics CIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.00Q1 | 5.31 1.40 up from 2015 | 719 | 56% | $2,410 | ||
38Astronomy and AstrophysicsOAEDP Sciences · France | 1.98Q1 | 5.60 0.26 up from 2015 | 5,411 | 100% | $1,865 | ||
39Applied Mathematics LettersElsevier BV · United States | 1.93Q1 | 2.44 0.46 up from 2015 | 609 | 99% | $3,800 | ||
40Journal of High Energy AstrophysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.93Q1 | 3.87 3.73 down from 2015 | 45 | 100% | $2,520 | ||
41Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 1.91Q1 | 4.73 0.93 up from 2015 | 172 | 4% | — | ||
42Journal of Space Weather and Space ClimateOAEDP Open · France | 1.91Q1 | 3.97 0.06 down from 2015 | 105 | 100% | $1,413 | ||
43Journal of Geophysical Research PlanetsWiley · United States | 1.86Q1 | 4.45 0.02 up from 2015 | 404 | 74% | $4,070 | ||
44New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.83Q1 | 3.94 0.11 up from 2015 | 2,648 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
45Network ScienceCambridge University Press · United States | 1.82Q1 | 1.71 0.21 down from 2015 | 83 | 72% | $3,550 | ||
46Physical Review BAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.81Q1 | 4.10 0.11 up from 2015 | 14,651 | 0% | $2,675 | ||
47Earth and Space ScienceOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 1.79Q1 | 2.86 0.19 up from 2015 | 42 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
48Astroparticle PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.76Q1 | 4.48 1.11 up from 2015 | 297 | 87% | $2,920 | ||
49Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and SystemsSPIE · United States | 1.75Q1 | 3.29 0.02 up from 2015 | 62 | 58% | — | ||
50Journal of Nonlinear ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.70Q1 | 2.33 0.28 up from 2015 | 119 | 65% | $3,290 |
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.
88 additional Physics and Astronomy 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
- 334
- Window papers (baseline)
- 379,807 +4.8% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 0.662 +4.5% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 36Comparison-group list (36)
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 | 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.