Journal rankings · indicator year 2017
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2017
Physics and Astronomy journal rankings 2017
343 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Physics and Astronomy has 343 ranked journals in 2017. The median journal has an OJR of 0.66, below the world average of 1.00, unchanged on 2016; Q1 starts at OJR 1.16. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Physics Reports, and Advances in Optics and Photonics.
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.
Subfields in Physics and Astronomy (8)
Up to Physical Sciences343 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 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% | — | ||
2Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.53Q1 | 21.73 2.70 up from 2016 | 160 | 87% | $6,240 | ||
3Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 9.73Q1 | 24.57 3.76 up from 2016 | 39 | 38% | — | ||
4Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.88Q1 | 16.74 0.20 down from 2016 | 826 | 34% | $12,690 | ||
5Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.30Q1 | 14.80 2.44 down from 2016 | 221 | 78% | $4,680 | ||
6Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.85Q1 | 13.13 1.58 down from 2016 | 247 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
7Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.51Q1 | 11.63 1.03 up from 2016 | 1,078 | 48% | $12,690 | ||
8Progress in Particle and Nuclear PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.91Q1 | 11.63 0.76 down from 2016 | 64 | 58% | $4,780 | ||
9The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesOAInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 4.83Q1 | 9.41 1.08 down from 2016 | 555 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
10Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.61Q1 | 11.94 2.22 up from 2016 | 606 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
11Space Science ReviewsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.39Q1 | 8.29 0.67 up from 2016 | 268 | 72% | $5,290 | ||
12Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.88Q1 | 9.36 0.46 up from 2016 | 8,041 | 85% | $3,750 | ||
13OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 3.88Q1 | 9.02 0.24 up from 2016 | 509 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
14Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.72Q1 | 7.22 2.11 down from 2016 | 35 | 67% | $4,130 | ||
15International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.70Q1 | 10.21 4.87 up from 2016 | 51 | 38% | — | ||
16Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 3.66Q1 | 9.25 0.10 down from 2016 | 84 | 21% | $5,230 | ||
17The Astrophysical Journal LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.32Q1 | 7.55 1.05 up from 2016 | 1,839 | 100% | $2,400 | ||
18SIAM ReviewSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics · United States | 3.32Q1 | 3.60 0.56 down from 2016 | 109 | 59% | — | ||
19Reviews in Mineralogy and GeochemistryMineralogical Society of America · United States | 3.28Q1 | 8.68 3.85 up from 2016 | 64 | 16% | — | ||
20Physics of the Dark UniverseElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.47Q1 | 5.47 0.34 down from 2016 | 99 | 73% | $3,660 | ||
21Nonlinear DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.46Q1 | 4.53 0.62 up from 2016 | 2,083 | 13% | $4,790 | ||
22Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society LettersOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.40Q1 | 5.22 0.15 up from 2016 | 658 | 99% | $1,451 | ||
23Journal of Complex NetworksOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.37Q1 | 1.43 2.72 down from 2016 | 120 | 63% | $4,533 | ||
24Publications of the Astronomical Society of AustraliaCambridge University Press · Australia | 2.29Q1 | 5.11 0.28 down from 2016 | 157 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
25Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 2.27Q1 | 5.20 0.02 up from 2016 | 576 | 64% | — | ||
26Computer Physics CommunicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.25Q1 | 4.03 0.34 down from 2016 | 886 | 65% | $4,160 | ||
27Chinese Physics CIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.19Q1 | 3.40 1.91 down from 2016 | 720 | 81% | $2,410 | ||
28Annual Review of Astronomy and AstrophysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 2.18Q1 | 27.56 10.22 down from 2016 | 50 | 73% | — | ||
29Astronomy and AstrophysicsOAEDP Sciences · France | 2.14Q1 | 5.71 0.11 up from 2016 | 5,533 | 100% | $1,865 | ||
30Earth and Space ScienceOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 2.12Q1 | 3.83 0.97 up from 2016 | 79 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
31The Astrophysical JournalOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.10Q1 | 5.90 0.35 down from 2016 | 8,710 | 100% | $4,499 | ||
32Publications of the Astronomical Society of the PacificInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 2.09Q1 | 3.57 1.13 down from 2016 | 330 | 99% | $3,325 | ||
33The European Physical Journal COASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.06Q1 | 5.50 0.50 down from 2016 | 1,880 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
34Applied Mathematics LettersElsevier BV · United States | 2.05Q1 | 2.70 0.26 up from 2016 | 660 | 99% | $3,800 | ||
35Journal of Space Weather and Space ClimateOAEDP Open · France | 2.05Q1 | 3.06 0.91 down from 2016 | 118 | 100% | $1,413 | ||
36Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical SimulationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.05Q1 | 3.22 0.20 up from 2016 | 1,101 | 27% | $3,710 | ||
37Journal of Geophysical Research PlanetsWiley · United States | 1.95Q1 | 4.24 0.21 down from 2016 | 383 | 60% | $4,070 | ||
38Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fieldsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.91Q1 | 4.38 0.46 down from 2016 | 6,903 | — | — | ||
39Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.91Q1 | 5.81 0.14 up from 2016 | 1,670 | 44% | $4,500 | ||
40Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 1.89Q1 | 5.44 0.71 up from 2016 | 219 | 16% | — | ||
41APL PhotonicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 1.86Q1 | 4.27no 2016 value | 60 | 100% | $2,750 | — | |
42Physics Letters BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.85Q1 | 4.50 0.78 down from 2016 | 2,647 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
43The Astronomical JournalOAInstitute of Physics · United States | 1.83Q1 | 4.30 0.04 down from 2016 | 1,100 | 100% | $4,499 | ||
44New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.76Q1 | 3.77 0.17 down from 2016 | 2,492 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
45Physical Review BAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.67Q1 | 4.21 0.11 up from 2016 | 9,892 | 0% | $2,675 | ||
46Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.64Q1 | 5.34 0.32 down from 2016 | 9,217 | 94% | $3,046 | ||
47Radiation OncologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.63Q1 | 3.67 0.44 up from 2016 | 724 | 100% | $3,290 | ||
48Journal of Synchrotron RadiationOAWiley · United Kingdom | 1.62Q1 | 3.27 0.11 down from 2016 | 591 | 63% | $3,180 | ||
49AstrobiologyMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.62Q1 | 4.17 1.26 up from 2016 | 216 | 60% | — | ||
50Nuclear Physics BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.61Q1 | 3.39 0.75 down from 2016 | 990 | 100% | $0 listed |
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.
97 additional Physics and Astronomy 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
- 343
- Window papers (baseline)
- 383,796 +4.2% from indicator year 2014
- Median OJR
- 0.660 -2.3% from indicator year 2014
- Rising journals (2025)
- 36Comparison-group list (36)
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 | 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.