Journal rankings · indicator year 2017
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2017
Physical Sciences journal rankings 2017
6,264 ranked journals · Domain
Physical Sciences has 6,264 ranked journals in 2017. The median journal has an OJR of 0.72, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.03 on 2016; Q1 starts at OJR 1.35. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, and Materials Science and Engineering R Reports.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2017. 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 2014–2016, the window the 2017 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.
Fields in Physical Sciences (10)
Up to All journals6,264 ranked journals
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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 2016. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2014–2016, the window the 2017 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2014–2016 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 2008 to 2017. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 18.56Q1 | 38.16 1.25 down from 2016 | 118 | 86% | — | ||
2IEEE Communications Surveys & TutorialsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 17.12Q1 | 27.51 2.33 up from 2016 | 324 | 28% | $2,645 | ||
3Materials Science and Engineering R ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 14.96Q1 | 23.56 10.77 down from 2016 | 37 | 5% | $6,150 | ||
4Journal of Statistical SoftwareOAFoundation for Open Access Statistics · United States | 14.60Q1 | 25.48 10.53 up from 2016 | 293 | 100% | — | ||
5Progress in Energy and Combustion ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 13.36Q1 | 18.10 4.71 down from 2016 | 67 | 42% | $6,990 | ||
6Progress in Materials ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 12.89Q1 | 28.54 0.09 down from 2016 | 93 | 40% | $6,040 | ||
7Journal Of Big DataOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 12.37Q1 | 13.46 3.34 up from 2016 | 58 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
8ACM Computing SurveysAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 11.99Q1 | 11.85 3.04 down from 2016 | 234 | 40% | — | ||
9Nature EnergyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 10.66Q1 | 24.51no 2016 value | 220 | 37% | $12,690 | — | |
10Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.53Q1 | 21.73 2.70 up from 2016 | 160 | 87% | $6,240 | ||
11Energy & Environmental ScienceRoyal Society of Chemistry · United Kingdom | 10.37Q1 | 29.25 0.40 up from 2016 | 1,020 | 24% | — | ||
12Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States | 10.27Q1 | 16.30 0.02 down from 2016 | 74 | 56% | $3,880 | ||
13Nature MaterialsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 10.09Q1 | 22.56 0.30 up from 2016 | 943 | 48% | $12,690 | ||
14International Journal of Computer VisionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 9.97Q1 | 17.22 3.14 up from 2016 | 257 | 51% | $4,090 | ||
15CAAI Transactions on Intelligence TechnologyOAInstitution of Engineering and Technology · United States | 9.82Q1 | 11.60no 2016 value | 35 | 89% | $2,760 | — | |
16Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 9.73Q1 | 24.57 3.76 up from 2016 | 39 | 38% | — | ||
17IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE Computer Society · United States | 9.65Q1 | 13.95 3.68 up from 2016 | 748 | 28% | $2,645 | ||
18Progress in Polymer ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 9.33Q1 | 15.76 5.18 down from 2016 | 207 | 16% | $6,500 | ||
19Nature NanotechnologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 9.09Q1 | 21.10 0.12 down from 2016 | 913 | 32% | $12,690 | ||
20Transactions of the Association for Computational LinguisticsOAAssociation for Computational Linguistics | 8.45Q1 | 9.42 1.17 down from 2016 | 124 | 100% | — | ||
21Accounts of Chemical ResearchAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 8.45Q1 | 22.06 0.02 up from 2016 | 913 | 34% | $4,500 | ||
22ACM Transactions on Computer SystemsAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 8.27Q1 | 5.89 4.85 down from 2016 | 36 | 33% | — | ||
23Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.88Q1 | 16.74 0.20 down from 2016 | 826 | 34% | $12,690 | ||
24Nature Climate ChangeNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.62Q1 | 12.59 1.74 up from 2016 | 969 | 35% | $12,690 | ||
25Progress in Aerospace SciencesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.50Q1 | 4.01 0.93 down from 2016 | 152 | 13% | $5,860 | ||
26IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary ComputationInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 7.36Q1 | 7.83 0.45 down from 2016 | 220 | 23% | $2,645 | ||
27IEEE Communications MagazineInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 7.32Q1 | 8.70 3.13 down from 2016 | 1,271 | 19% | $2,995 | ||
28Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.30Q1 | 14.80 2.44 down from 2016 | 221 | 78% | $4,680 | ||
29IEEE Internet of Things JournalInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 7.18Q1 | 8.98 1.56 down from 2016 | 314 | 18% | $2,645 | ||
30LandslidesSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 6.70Q1 | 4.50 1.59 up from 2016 | 317 | 24% | $4,590 | ||
31Advanced MaterialsGermany | 6.69Q1 | 18.76 2.14 up from 2016 | 3,906 | 29% | $6,070 | ||
32IEEE Transactions on Cloud ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 6.55Q1 | 4.19 0.87 down from 2016 | 339 | 12% | $2,645 | ||
33Analytic Methods in Accident ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.54Q1 | 9.23 3.09 up from 2016 | 42 | 20% | $5,310 | ||
34IEEE Transactions on Software EngineeringIEEE Computer Society · United States | 6.41Q1 | 5.05 0.26 up from 2016 | 240 | 33% | $2,645 | ||
35Applied Physics ReviewsAmerican Institute of Physics · United States | 6.38Q1 | 14.13 0.80 down from 2016 | 105 | 33% | — | ||
36Nature ChemistryNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.31Q1 | 14.80 0.94 up from 2016 | 809 | 42% | $12,690 | ||
37IEEE Transactions on CyberneticsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 6.30Q1 | 9.45 1.17 up from 2016 | 1,035 | 17% | $2,645 | ||
38Empirical Software EngineeringSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 6.28Q1 | 3.90 0.11 down from 2016 | 181 | 47% | $2,290 | ||
39Annals of MathematicsPrinceton University · United States | 6.23Q1 | 4.29 0.39 down from 2016 | 131 | 53% | — | ||
40Smart Learning EnvironmentsOASpringer Nature · Germany | 6.20Q1 | 3.36 3.98 down from 2016 | 40 | 100% | $1,810 | ||
41The International Journal of Robotics ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.20Q1 | 7.71 1.19 up from 2016 | 245 | 35% | $4,400 | ||
42ACM SIGKDD Explorations NewsletterAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 6.19Q1 | 5.47 0.86 down from 2016 | 35 | 14% | — | ||
43IEEE Transactions on Services ComputingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 6.11Q1 | 4.34 0.51 up from 2016 | 366 | 20% | $2,645 | ||
44ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and MethodologyAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 6.10Q1 | 3.97 0.43 down from 2016 | 82 | 33% | — | ||
45Journal of the American Mathematical SocietyAmerican Mathematical Society · United States | 6.06Q1 | 3.70 0.74 down from 2016 | 96 | 68% | — | ||
46npj Quantum InformationOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.02Q1 | 10.56 1.83 up from 2016 | 36 | 100% | $4,290 | ||
47IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning SystemsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 6.00Q1 | 9.80 2.47 up from 2016 | 943 | 17% | $2,645 | ||
48AutomaticaElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.96Q1 | 7.91 0.49 up from 2016 | 1,296 | 42% | $3,760 | ||
49ACM Transactions on Information and System SecurityAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 5.92Q1 | 5.86 1.24 up from 2016 | 35 | — | — | ||
50Nature GeoscienceNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.90Q1 | 11.02 1.06 up from 2016 | 754 | 42% | $12,690 |
Citations made in 2017. Corpus-wide, 77.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
1,968 additional Physical Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2014–2016, 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: 2017. Publication window: 2014–2016. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 6,264
- Window papers (baseline)
- 6,301,559 +2.8% from indicator year 2014
- Median OJR
- 0.72 -10.7% from indicator year 2014
- Rising journals (2025)
- 544
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2014–2016 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 | 2,978 | 3,130 | 3,308 | 3,456 | 3,568 | 3,676 | 3,772 | 3,984 | 4,244 | 4,490 | 4,657 | 4,878 | 5,152 | 5,440 | 5,715 | 5,957 | 6,138 | 6,264 | 6,379 | 6,515 | 6,592 | 6,653 | 6,729 | 6,756 | 6,753 | 6,689 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 2,394,543 | 2,616,266 | 2,843,810 | 3,093,298 | 3,313,683 | 3,580,201 | 3,872,505 | 4,185,648 | 4,493,645 | 4,800,486 | 5,075,806 | 5,354,164 | 5,648,473 | 5,894,389 | 6,132,497 | 6,314,481 | 6,413,369 | 6,301,559 | 5,933,082 | 5,573,353 | 5,450,875 | 5,628,343 | 5,801,009 | 5,736,495 | 5,650,353 | 5,795,472 | |
| Median OJR | 0.683 | 0.698 | 0.74 | 0.784 | 0.79 | 0.805 | 0.83 | 0.839 | 0.85 | 0.8694 | 0.8692 | 0.86 | 0.840 | 0.82 | 0.812 | 0.783 | 0.76 | 0.72 | 0.695 | 0.681 | 0.679 | 0.676 | 0.666 | 0.6623 | 0.6622 | 0.667 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.4% | 5,226 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 2.726 per 1,000 | 4,677 journals |
| Output growth | Median: +1.1% | 6,002 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 61.9% | 6,689 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,090 | 3,753 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 25.2% | 6,406 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 6,689 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.67 | 6,602 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 33.6% | 6,689 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 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.