Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2018
Physics and Astronomy journal rankings 2018
348 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Physics and Astronomy has 348 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.63, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.03 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.17. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Physics Reports, and Advances in Optics and Photonics.
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.
Subfields in Physics and Astronomy (8)
Up to Physical Sciences348 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 19.78Q1 | 42.15 4.00 up from 2017 | 122 | 89% | — | ||
2Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 12.48Q1 | 30.98 9.25 up from 2017 | 156 | 43% | $6,240 | ||
3Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 8.19Q1 | 16.55 8.02 down from 2017 | 44 | 20% | — | ||
4Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.61Q1 | 16.92 2.12 up from 2017 | 244 | 76% | $4,680 | ||
5Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.72Q1 | 15.81 0.94 down from 2017 | 755 | 39% | $12,690 | ||
6Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.32Q1 | 10.28 1.35 down from 2017 | 1,089 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
7Reviews in Mineralogy and GeochemistryMineralogical Society of America · United States | 5.15Q1 | 10.37 1.69 up from 2017 | 66 | 7% | — | ||
8Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.08Q1 | 14.09 0.95 up from 2017 | 296 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
9Progress in Particle and Nuclear PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.01Q1 | 11.25 0.38 down from 2017 | 72 | 74% | $4,780 | ||
10Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.87Q1 | 10.49 1.46 down from 2017 | 610 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
11The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesOAInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 8.41 1.00 down from 2017 | 556 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
12SIAM ReviewSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics · United States | 3.90Q1 | 5.43 1.83 up from 2017 | 117 | 61% | — | ||
13Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 3.88Q1 | 10.21 0.95 up from 2017 | 109 | 45% | $5,230 | ||
14International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.88Q1 | 9.59 0.62 down from 2017 | 46 | 18% | — | ||
15OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 3.85Q1 | 10.28 1.26 up from 2017 | 686 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
16Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.80Q1 | 9.67 0.31 up from 2017 | 7,650 | 88% | $3,750 | ||
17The Astrophysical Journal LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.79Q1 | 9.80 2.25 up from 2017 | 1,723 | 100% | $2,400 | ||
18Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.48Q1 | 7.55 0.33 up from 2017 | 42 | 44% | $4,130 | ||
19Space Science ReviewsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.37Q1 | 7.36 0.93 down from 2017 | 295 | 73% | $5,290 | ||
20SciPost PhysicsOASciPost.org · Netherlands | 2.78Q1 | 6.06 1.25 up from 2017 | 80 | 100% | — | ||
21npj Quantum MaterialsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.61Q1 | 7.09 0.25 up from 2017 | 86 | 100% | $2,890 | ||
22Physics of the Dark UniverseElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.60Q1 | 5.96 0.49 up from 2017 | 119 | 79% | $3,660 | ||
23Nonlinear DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.39Q1 | 4.84 0.32 up from 2017 | 2,136 | 13% | $4,790 | ||
24Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society LettersOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.27Q1 | 5.09 0.12 down from 2017 | 677 | 97% | $1,451 | ||
25Publications of the Astronomical Society of AustraliaCambridge University Press · Australia | 2.27Q1 | 4.83 0.28 down from 2017 | 179 | 98% | $3,550 | ||
26AstrobiologyMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 2.19Q1 | 5.57 1.40 up from 2017 | 242 | 57% | — | ||
27Applied Mathematics LettersElsevier BV · United States | 2.18Q1 | 3.59 0.89 up from 2017 | 716 | 97% | $3,800 | ||
28The Astronomical JournalOAInstitute of Physics · United States | 2.18Q1 | 6.00 1.69 up from 2017 | 1,342 | 100% | $4,499 | ||
29Computer Physics CommunicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.15Q1 | 4.05 0.03 up from 2017 | 877 | 66% | $4,160 | ||
30Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical SimulationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.06Q1 | 3.74 0.53 up from 2017 | 1,028 | 30% | $3,710 | ||
31Publications of the Astronomical Society of the PacificInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 2.04Q1 | 3.59 0.02 up from 2017 | 368 | 99% | $3,325 | ||
32Journal of Geophysical Research PlanetsWiley · United States | 2.00Q1 | 5.17 0.93 up from 2017 | 390 | 68% | $4,070 | ||
33The Astrophysical JournalOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.99Q1 | 5.82 0.08 down from 2017 | 9,037 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
34Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 1.98Q1 | 5.63 0.20 up from 2017 | 310 | 23% | — | ||
35Nature AstronomyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 3.80 6.92 down from 2017 | 323 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
36Astronomy and AstrophysicsOAEDP Sciences · France | 1.97Q1 | 6.04 0.33 up from 2017 | 5,442 | 99% | $1,865 | ||
37Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.96Q1 | 5.38 0.43 down from 2017 | 1,684 | 50% | $4,500 | ||
38Annual Review of Astronomy and AstrophysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.94Q1 | 34.13 6.57 up from 2017 | 49 | 78% | — | ||
39Earth and Space ScienceOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 1.92Q1 | 2.88 0.95 down from 2017 | 115 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
40The European Physical Journal COASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.92Q1 | 4.92 0.57 down from 2017 | 2,275 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
41Chinese Physics CIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.91Q1 | 5.55 2.15 up from 2017 | 709 | 82% | $2,410 | ||
42Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fieldsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.85Q1 | —no 2017 value | 3,398 | — | — | ||
43Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.83Q1 | 4.80 0.40 down from 2017 | 884 | 59% | — | ||
44APL PhotonicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 1.81Q1 | 5.09 0.82 up from 2017 | 131 | 100% | $2,750 | ||
45Matter and Radiation at ExtremesOAAmerican Institute of Physics · China | 1.76Q1 | 3.87 1.22 up from 2017 | 63 | 100% | — | ||
46Physics Letters BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.73Q1 | 4.26 0.24 down from 2017 | 2,762 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
47Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 1.72Q1 | 5.46 0.81 up from 2017 | 2,021 | 99% | $3,290 | ||
48Chaos Solitons & FractalsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.71Q1 | 3.47 0.78 up from 2017 | 1,080 | 18% | $3,970 | ||
49New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.67Q1 | 3.93 0.16 up from 2017 | 2,289 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
50Radiation OncologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.66Q1 | 3.79 0.12 up from 2017 | 626 | 100% | $3,290 |
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.
111 additional Physics and Astronomy 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
- 348
- Window papers (baseline)
- 380,664 +1.0% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.631 -11.6% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 36Comparison-group list (36)
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 | 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.