Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2020
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journal rankings 2020
105 ranked journals · Subfield in Physics and Astronomy
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics has 105 ranked journals in 2020. The median journal has an OJR of 0.71, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.05 on 2019; Q1 starts at OJR 1.24. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Reports on Progress in Physics, and Nature Photonics.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2020. 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 2017–2019, the window the 2020 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 of Physics and Astronomy (8)
105 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 2019. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2017–2019, the window the 2020 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2017–2019 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 2011 to 2020. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of Modern PhysicsAmerican Physical Society · United States | 23.45Q1 | 60.09 10.09 up from 2019 | 121 | 76% | — | ||
2Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.13Q1 | 17.99 0.63 down from 2019 | 198 | 85% | $4,680 | ||
3Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.56Q1 | 20.59 4.39 up from 2019 | 709 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
4Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 5.17Q1 | 16.40 1.18 down from 2019 | 51 | 43% | — | ||
5Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 4.97Q1 | 12.14 2.68 down from 2019 | 130 | 40% | $5,230 | ||
6Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 16.34 1.88 up from 2019 | 344 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
7Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.53Q1 | 13.72 2.72 up from 2019 | 753 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
8Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.46Q1 | 11.30 1.58 up from 2019 | 1,025 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
9OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 3.59Q1 | 11.17 0.17 down from 2019 | 748 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
10Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.29Q1 | 9.86 0.48 up from 2019 | 8,084 | 89% | $3,750 | ||
11Progress in Quantum ElectronicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.23Q1 | 12.88 3.55 up from 2019 | 31 | 37% | $4,090 | ||
12SciPost PhysicsOASciPost.org · Netherlands | 2.55Q1 | 7.01 0.86 up from 2019 | 337 | 100% | — | ||
13Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.45Q1 | 5.13 1.54 down from 2019 | 31 | 38% | $4,130 | ||
14Adaptive Optics Systems VIPublisher not listed | 2.10Q1 | 0.78 0.24 up from 2019 | 218 | — | — | ||
15Communications PhysicsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.08Q1 | 6.27 1.17 up from 2019 | 260 | 100% | $3,990 | ||
16Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 2.01Q1 | 7.13 0.44 up from 2019 | 592 | 20% | — | ||
17International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 6.09 0.92 up from 2019 | 36 | 24% | — | ||
18APL PhotonicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 1.91Q1 | 6.34 0.25 up from 2019 | 314 | 100% | $2,750 | ||
19Comptes Rendus PhysiqueOAAcadémie des sciences · France | 1.80Q1 | 4.04 0.16 down from 2019 | 166 | 100% | — | ||
20Advances in Physics XOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.79Q1 | 6.97 2.30 up from 2019 | 102 | 100% | $1,895 | ||
21Nature Reviews PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 1.69Q1 | 13.06 6.14 up from 2019 | 125 | 54% | — | ||
22Physical Review ResearchOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.68Q1 | 4.98no 2019 value | 341 | 100% | $2,625 | — | |
23Journal of Chemical Theory and ComputationAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.67Q1 | 6.32 1.08 up from 2019 | 1,718 | 51% | $4,500 | ||
24Physical Review AppliedAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.51Q1 | 5.15 0.43 up from 2019 | 2,006 | 60% | — | ||
25Frontiers in PhysicsOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.51Q1 | 4.29 1.07 up from 2019 | 425 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
26New Journal of PhysicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.35Q1 | 3.68 0.23 down from 2019 | 1,941 | 100% | $2,610 | ||
27Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VIIPublisher not listed | 1.24Q1 | 0.54 0.18 up from 2019 | 177 | — | — | ||
28The European Physical Journal PlusSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.22Q2 | 3.85 0.13 up from 2019 | 1,727 | 30% | $3,890 | ||
29Science China Physics Mechanics and AstronomySpringer Science+Business Media · China | 1.14Q2 | 3.81 0.77 up from 2019 | 496 | 46% | $3,590 | ||
30Physical review. B./Physical review. BAmerican Physical Society · United States | 1.02Q2 | 4.29 0.34 up from 2019 | 15,629 | 82% | — | ||
31Annals of PhysicsElsevier BV · United States | 0.99Q2 | 2.76 0.58 up from 2019 | 714 | 68% | $3,160 | ||
32Physical Review AAmerican Physical Society · United States | 0.98Q2 | 3.34 0.11 up from 2019 | 7,802 | 77% | $2,675 | ||
33Structural DynamicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 0.98Q2 | 2.92 0.69 down from 2019 | 153 | 100% | $2,200 | ||
34Journal of Computational ChemistryWiley · United States | 0.97Q2 | 3.21 0.27 up from 2019 | 807 | 41% | $4,520 | ||
35Atomic Data and Nuclear Data TablesElsevier BV · United States | 0.96Q2 | 2.81 0.17 up from 2019 | 62 | 24% | $3,030 | ||
36Annalen der PhysikWiley · Germany | 0.95Q2 | 2.62 0.12 down from 2019 | 539 | 45% | $3,840 | ||
37The Journal of Chemical PhysicsAmerican Institute of Physics · United States | 0.87Q2 | 3.56 0.39 up from 2019 | 6,248 | 55% | $3,500 | ||
38Journal of Physics A Mathematical and TheoreticalInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 0.87Q2 | 2.09 0.03 up from 2019 | 1,722 | 88% | $3,325 | ||
39Journal of Physics PhotonicsOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.87Q2 | 2.78 1.33 up from 2019 | 41 | 100% | $2,700 | ||
40Annual Review of Condensed Matter PhysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 0.85Q2 | 15.69 0.23 up from 2019 | 78 | 76% | — | ||
41Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative TransferElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.85Q2 | 2.52 0.98 down from 2019 | 1,216 | 35% | $2,870 | ||
42Frontiers of PhysicsHigher Education Press · China | 0.84Q2 | 3.41 0.84 up from 2019 | 286 | 38% | $3,890 | ||
43The Journal of Physical Chemistry AAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 0.84Q2 | 2.86 0.09 up from 2019 | 3,218 | 27% | — | ||
44Physics Letters AElsevier BV | 0.81Q2 | 2.40 0.08 up from 2019 | 1,964 | 28% | $2,150 | ||
45Quantum ReportsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.79Q2 | 2.32 2.32 up from 2019 | 31 | 100% | $1,689 | ||
46Journal of OpticsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.78Q2 | 2.74 0.07 up from 2019 | 1,007 | 57% | $3,325 | ||
47Color and Imaging ConferenceUnited States | 0.75Q2 | 0.47 0.06 up from 2019 | 181 | 94% | — | ||
48BiointerphasesAmerican Institute of Physics · Germany | 0.75Q2 | 2.48 0.11 up from 2019 | 206 | 40% | — | ||
49PhysicsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.74Q2 | 1.88 0.12 down from 2019 | 33 | 100% | $1,689 | ||
50Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern PhysicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 0.74Q2 | 1.78 0.10 down from 2019 | 140 | 50% | $2,700 |
Subfields of Physics and Astronomy, with Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics highlighted.
- Astronomy and Astrophysics119
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics105
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics74
- Statistical and Nonlinear Physics43
- Radiation29
- Condensed Matter Physics9
- Instrumentation1
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics0
Journals
Citations made in 2020. Corpus-wide, 86.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
24 additional Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2017–2019, 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: 2020. Publication window: 2017–2019. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 105
- Window papers (baseline)
- 112,377 -4.1% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 0.706 -11.5% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2017–2019 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 | 57 | 64 | 62 | 65 | 65 | 66 | 68 | 70 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 78 | 81 | 85 | 87 | 89 | 91 | 92 | 97 | 105 | 103 | 103 | 108 | 107 | 105 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 84,695 | 86,753 | 86,412 | 89,035 | 91,151 | 95,706 | 100,546 | 106,715 | 110,735 | 112,436 | 112,382 | 112,245 | 113,539 | 114,815 | 116,212 | 117,514 | 117,344 | 117,182 | 115,527 | 113,962 | 112,377 | 111,323 | 110,326 | 106,860 | 103,126 | 100,852 | |
| Median OJR | 0.710 | 0.60 | 0.59 | 0.642 | 0.640 | 0.77 | 0.807 | 0.783 | 0.89 | 0.86 | 0.84 | 0.95 | 0.83 | 0.778 | 0.82 | 0.813 | 0.79 | 0.80 | 0.76 | 0.75 | 0.706 | 0.67 | 0.662 | 0.68 | 0.657 | 0.70 |
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.