Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2018
Physical Sciences journal rankings 2018
6,379 ranked journals · Domain
Physical Sciences has 6,379 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.70, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.03 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.28. The top three are Journal of Statistical Software, Reviews of Modern Physics, and IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2018. 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 2015–2017, the window the 2018 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 journals6,379 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 2017. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2015–2017, the window the 2018 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2015–2017 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 2009 to 2018. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of Statistical SoftwareOAFoundation for Open Access Statistics · United States | 19.97Q1 | 16.16 9.32 down from 2017 | 300 | 100% | — | ||
2Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 19.78Q1 | 42.15 4.00 up from 2017 | 122 | 89% | — | ||
3IEEE Communications Surveys & TutorialsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 16.57Q1 | 26.03 1.48 down from 2017 | 341 | 44% | $2,645 | ||
4Progress in Energy and Combustion ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 12.65Q1 | 21.07 2.96 up from 2017 | 91 | 41% | $6,990 | ||
5Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 12.48Q1 | 30.98 9.25 up from 2017 | 156 | 43% | $6,240 | ||
6Progress in Materials ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 11.97Q1 | 26.00 2.54 down from 2017 | 136 | 38% | $6,040 | ||
7Transactions of the Association for Computational LinguisticsOAAssociation for Computational Linguistics | 10.69Q1 | 18.79 9.37 up from 2017 | 118 | 100% | — | ||
8Communications of the ACMAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 10.39Q1 | 18.44 15.64 up from 2017 | 840 | 28% | — | ||
9Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States | 10.12Q1 | 17.72 1.42 up from 2017 | 90 | 77% | $3,880 | ||
10Materials Science and Engineering R ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 10.08Q1 | 26.83 3.27 up from 2017 | 36 | 30% | $6,150 | ||
11IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE Computer Society · United States | 9.88Q1 | 17.40 3.46 up from 2017 | 799 | 38% | $2,645 | ||
12Nature EnergyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 9.55Q1 | 27.14 2.63 up from 2017 | 436 | 32% | $12,690 | ||
13Energy & Environmental ScienceRoyal Society of Chemistry · United Kingdom | 9.38Q1 | 27.59 1.67 down from 2017 | 995 | 34% | — | ||
14ACM SIGIR ForumAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 9.37Q1 | 11.17 8.55 up from 2017 | 110 | 24% | — | ||
15International Journal of Computer VisionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 9.33Q1 | 8.08 9.14 down from 2017 | 245 | 54% | $4,090 | ||
16ACM Computing SurveysAssociation for Computing Machinery · United States | 9.28Q1 | 12.05 0.20 up from 2017 | 273 | 40% | — | ||
17Progress in Polymer ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 9.06Q1 | 14.83 0.93 down from 2017 | 218 | 29% | $6,500 | ||
18Nature MaterialsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 9.02Q1 | 25.32 2.76 up from 2017 | 838 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
19Journal Of Big DataOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 8.34Q1 | 6.60 6.86 down from 2017 | 99 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
20Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 8.19Q1 | 16.55 8.02 down from 2017 | 44 | 20% | — | ||
21Computer Science ReviewElsevier BV · Netherlands | 8.00Q1 | 10.67 2.08 up from 2017 | 41 | 30% | $4,190 | ||
22Nature NanotechnologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.84Q1 | 19.23 1.87 down from 2017 | 889 | 42% | $12,690 | ||
23Science RoboticsAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 7.70Q1 | 16.05 2.95 down from 2017 | 58 | 30% | — | ||
24Empirical Software EngineeringSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 7.66Q1 | 5.84 1.94 up from 2017 | 210 | 44% | $2,290 | ||
25Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.61Q1 | 16.92 2.12 up from 2017 | 244 | 76% | $4,680 | ||
26Nature Climate ChangeNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.61Q1 | 13.05 0.46 up from 2017 | 898 | 42% | $12,690 | ||
27Accounts of Chemical ResearchAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 7.44Q1 | 21.21 0.85 down from 2017 | 926 | 28% | $4,500 | ||
28Progress in Aerospace SciencesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.35Q1 | 4.95 0.94 up from 2017 | 149 | 17% | $5,860 | ||
29Information FusionElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.23Q1 | 13.95 4.63 up from 2017 | 246 | 28% | $4,740 | ||
30Journal of Urban TechnologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 7.19Q1 | 3.21 2.18 down from 2017 | 87 | 42% | — | ||
31Advanced MaterialsGermany | 6.94Q1 | 22.78 4.02 up from 2017 | 4,249 | 36% | $6,070 | ||
32International Materials ReviewsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 6.73Q1 | 19.67 6.33 up from 2017 | 60 | 26% | $4,400 | ||
33Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.72Q1 | 15.81 0.94 down from 2017 | 755 | 39% | $12,690 | ||
34Analytic Methods in Accident ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.60Q1 | 11.83 2.60 up from 2017 | 50 | 78% | $5,310 | ||
35IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary ComputationInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 6.43Q1 | 8.34 0.51 up from 2017 | 260 | 40% | $2,645 | ||
36Wind energy scienceOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 6.41Q1 | 4.45 0.61 up from 2017 | 62 | 100% | $1,132 | ||
37Nature GeoscienceNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.13Q1 | 12.22 1.20 up from 2017 | 718 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
38IEEE Transactions on Software EngineeringIEEE Computer Society · United States | 5.88Q1 | 5.70 0.66 up from 2017 | 271 | 37% | $2,645 | ||
39LandslidesSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 5.87Q1 | 4.34 0.16 down from 2017 | 375 | 28% | $4,590 | ||
40The Anthropocene ReviewSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.87Q1 | 6.92 4.24 down from 2017 | 59 | 19% | $3,900 | ||
41IEEE Communications MagazineInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 5.85Q1 | 8.94 0.24 up from 2017 | 1,481 | 30% | $2,995 | ||
42IEEE Internet of Things JournalInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 5.78Q1 | 13.00 4.02 up from 2017 | 583 | 21% | $2,645 | ||
43Earth system science dataOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 5.76Q1 | 13.23 0.66 up from 2017 | 132 | 100% | $1,509 | ||
44Applied Physics ReviewsAmerican Institute of Physics · United States | 5.73Q1 | 14.29 0.17 up from 2017 | 113 | 48% | — | ||
45Journal of Industrial Information IntegrationElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.72Q1 | 10.17 3.51 up from 2017 | 46 | 32% | $3,810 | ||
46Advanced Energy MaterialsWiley · Germany | 5.71Q1 | 19.69 2.52 up from 2017 | 1,722 | 32% | $5,790 | ||
47Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate ChangeWiley · United States | 5.68Q1 | 8.12 1.51 up from 2017 | 156 | 49% | $5,450 | ||
48Nature ChemistryNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.63Q1 | 17.06 2.26 up from 2017 | 719 | 50% | $12,690 | ||
49Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.50Q1 | 6.96 2.28 up from 2017 | 115 | 63% | $5,240 | ||
50IEEE Transactions on CyberneticsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 5.41Q1 | 9.94 0.49 up from 2017 | 1,091 | 21% | $2,645 |
Citations made in 2018. Corpus-wide, 81.5% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
1,971 additional Physical Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2015–2017, 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: 2018. Publication window: 2015–2017. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 6,379
- Window papers (baseline)
- 5,933,082 -6.0% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.695 -11.2% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 544
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2015–2017 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.