OpenJournalRank

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

Oncology journal rankings 2020

238 ranked journals · Subfield in Medicine

Oncology has 238 ranked journals in 2020. The median journal has an OJR of 0.83, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.04 on 2019; Q1 starts at OJR 1.31. The top three are CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Nature Medicine, and The Lancet Oncology.

Ranks and citation indicators: 2020. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.

Ranked journals

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.

238
5% of Medicine
Median OJR

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.

0.83+0.04 vs 2019
This subfieldAll 0.82World 1.00
Open-access journals

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.

45%
All fields: 35%
Median listed APC

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.

$3,765
Median positive listed APC: $3,765 among 116 journals. Another 1 lists $0; 121 have no known price. All fields: $3,300.

Subfields of Medicine (42)

Show all 42 subfields

238 ranked journals

Filters

Quartile

Quartiles split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. Q1 is the top quarter and Q4 the bottom quarter.

They are computed within the list on screen, so a journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 in the global ranking.

Access
APC (list price)
Loading every ranked journal in this list…
Oncology ranking, 2020

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.

OJR

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
1CA A Cancer Journal for CliniciansOAWiley · United States
127.93Q1634.51 296.90 up from 201976100%$4,330
2Nature MedicineNature Portfolio · United States
10.65Q138.45 11.99 up from 201985358%$12,690
3The Lancet OncologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom
6.73Q119.71 2.32 up from 20191,12038%$7,280
4Cancer CellCell Press · Netherlands
6.63Q124.57 3.67 up from 2019502100%$10,400
5Journal of Clinical OncologyLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States
6.62Q119.96 2.60 up from 20191,6055%—
6Annals of OncologyElsevier BV · Netherlands
4.37Q117.08 5.29 up from 20191,149100%$5,080
4.28Q112.49 1.34 up from 201949554%—
8Journal of Hematology & OncologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom
4.25Q118.83 6.40 up from 2019440100%$4,990
9JAMA OncologyAmerican Medical Association · United States
4.10Q111.77 1.25 up from 20191,19151%—
10Journal for ImmunoTherapy of CancerOABMJ · United Kingdom
3.92Q114.80 2.94 up from 2019589100%$2,490
11Cancer DiscoveryAmerican Association for Cancer Research · United States
3.50Q115.61 4.01 up from 201976336%—
12Nature Reviews Clinical OncologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom
3.38Q115.30 2.84 up from 201954332%—
13Clinical Cancer ResearchAmerican Association for Cancer Research · United States
3.33Q111.32 1.23 up from 20192,08834%—
14Seminars in Cancer BiologyElsevier BV · United States
3.02Q110.46 0.75 down from 201945731%$6,060
15Cancer Immunology ResearchAmerican Association for Cancer Research · United States
2.95Q111.21 2.19 up from 201944214%—
16JNCI Journal of the National Cancer InstituteOxford University Press · United States
2.78Q18.07 0.60 down from 201957195%$5,436
17European Journal of EpidemiologySpringer Science+Business Media · Italy
2.76Q18.02 0.83 up from 201936883%$3,690
18npj Precision OncologyOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom
2.74Q19.33 0.57 up from 201999100%$4,090
19World Journal of OncologyOAElmer Press Inc. · Canada
2.54Q111.49 9.68 up from 201989100%—
20Cancer Treatment ReviewsElsevier BV · United Kingdom
2.53Q111.56 1.36 up from 201933147%$4,910
21Therapeutic Advances in Medical OncologyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
2.45Q19.00 0.77 up from 2019225100%$2,800
22European Journal of CancerElsevier BV · United Kingdom
2.18Q18.12 1.03 up from 20191,14639%$4,270
23CancerWiley · United States
2.12Q15.83 0.39 up from 20191,76181%$4,790
24American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational BookAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology · United States
2.11Q17.79 4.38 up from 201930733%—
25British Journal of CancerSpringer Nature · United Kingdom
2.08Q17.82 1.36 up from 20191,112100%$5,190
26CancersOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland
2.06Q17.47 0.10 up from 20192,835100%$3,499
27Frontiers in OncologyOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland
2.05Q17.27 1.07 up from 20192,375100%$3,801
28OncoImmunologyOALandes Bioscience · United States
2.03Q18.52 2.35 up from 2019890100%$2,913
29npj Breast CancerOANature Portfolio · United States
2.03Q18.44 2.18 up from 2019132100%$3,790
30Breast Cancer ResearchOABioMed Central · United Kingdom
2.00Q17.42 1.53 up from 2019415100%$4,190
31International Journal of CancerWiley · United States
1.95Q16.94 1.35 up from 20191,91183%$5,030
32Current Oncology ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States
1.91Q16.00 0.96 up from 201929734%$5,090
33Expert Opinion on Investigational DrugsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom
1.90Q15.97 0.59 up from 201931645%—
34Current Treatment Options in OncologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States
1.90Q15.55 0.67 up from 201923821%$4,890
35Clinical Pharmacology & TherapeuticsWiley · United States
1.88Q14.88 0.10 up from 201997560%$4,410
36Archives of Pathology & Laboratory MedicineOAAmerican Medical Association · United States
1.88Q14.87 0.27 up from 2019621100%—
37The OncologistOAAlphaMed Press · United Kingdom
1.88Q15.52 0.84 up from 201998398%$3,852
38Cancer Immunology ImmunotherapyOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany
1.86Q17.04 1.14 up from 2019474100%$4,590
39Oncology ReviewsOAPAGEPress (Italy) · Switzerland
1.80Q14.28 2.95 down from 201955100%$2,353
40JNCI MonographsOxford University Press · United Kingdom
1.79Q13.31 1.80 down from 201952100%—
41Cancer Biology and MedicineOAChinese Anti-Cancer Association · China
1.78Q14.46 1.83 down from 2019156100%$1,500
42Molecular Cancer TherapeuticsAmerican Association for Cancer Research · United States
1.76Q15.86 0.03 down from 201978763%—
43Clinical and Translational GastroenterologyOALippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States
1.75Q15.00 0.45 up from 2019241100%$2,800
44Seminars in OncologyElsevier BV · United States
1.73Q15.61 1.12 up from 201913525%$3,550
45Critical Reviews in Oncology/HematologyElsevier BV · Netherlands
1.70Q17.06 0.28 up from 201954135%$4,190
46Cancer ControlOASAGE Publishing · United States
1.69Q14.73 0.60 up from 2019143100%$2,650
1.55Q14.91 1.01 up from 2019178100%$2,350
1.52Q15.35 1.38 up from 201976100%$3,250
49ESMO OpenOAElsevier BV · Netherlands
1.52Q15.52 0.55 up from 2019312100%$3,910
50Chinese Journal of Cancer ResearchOAAME Publishing Company · China
1.50Q15.29 0.77 up from 2019213100%—

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.

76 additional Oncology 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.

Rising journals

At a glance

Indicator year: 2020. Publication window: 2017–2019. How these summaries are calculated

Ranked journals
238
Window papers (baseline)
121,890 +15.1% from indicator year 2017
Median OJR
0.829 -1.6% from indicator year 2017
Rising journals (2025)
20

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.

Category by indicator year
MeasureYear series20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Ranked journals828896103109120120126127134141150153170179188198213224234238239245245243242
Window papers (baseline)37,82141,43044,34047,39249,05853,11157,00262,10666,08771,28377,00982,07586,18988,80493,91298,660102,921105,891109,984115,044121,890139,666156,942167,602163,907160,807
Median OJR0.550.620.700.7990.8050.8310.850.900.940.931.0100.951.0060.9740.9720.9670.8320.840.820.790.8290.8300.770.7500.730.748

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.