Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2020
Physics and Astronomy journal rankings 2020
380 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Physics and Astronomy has 380 ranked journals in 2020. The median journal has an OJR of 0.64, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.03 on 2019; Q1 starts at OJR 1.21. The top three are Reviews of Modern Physics, Physics Reports, and Reports on Progress in Physics.
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 in Physics and Astronomy (8)
Up to Physical Sciences380 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% | — | ||
2Physics ReportsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 11.30Q1 | 25.24 4.45 down from 2019 | 152 | 47% | $6,240 | ||
3Reports on Progress in PhysicsIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 7.13Q1 | 17.99 0.63 down from 2019 | 198 | 85% | $4,680 | ||
4Nature PhotonicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.56Q1 | 20.59 4.39 up from 2019 | 709 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
5Progress in Particle and Nuclear PhysicsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.22Q1 | 15.99 1.38 up from 2019 | 97 | 65% | $4,780 | ||
6Advances in Optics and PhotonicsOptica Publishing Group · United States | 5.17Q1 | 16.40 1.18 down from 2019 | 51 | 43% | — | ||
7Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Molecular ScienceWiley · United States | 4.97Q1 | 12.14 2.68 down from 2019 | 130 | 40% | $5,230 | ||
8SIAM ReviewSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics · United States | 4.95Q1 | 4.90 3.16 down from 2019 | 123 | 54% | — | ||
9Light Science & ApplicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 16.34 1.88 up from 2019 | 344 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
10Physical Review XOAAmerican Physical Society · United States | 4.53Q1 | 13.72 2.72 up from 2019 | 753 | 100% | $4,200 | ||
11Nature PhysicsNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.46Q1 | 11.30 1.58 up from 2019 | 1,025 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
12Reviews in Mineralogy and GeochemistryMineralogical Society of America · United States | 4.02Q1 | 5.10 6.32 down from 2019 | 68 | — | — | ||
13Space Science ReviewsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.91Q1 | 9.53 2.30 up from 2019 | 273 | 73% | $5,290 | ||
14The Astrophysical Journal LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 3.74Q1 | 9.09 1.02 down from 2019 | 1,769 | 99% | $2,400 | ||
15OpticaOAOptica Publishing Group · United States | 3.59Q1 | 11.17 0.17 down from 2019 | 748 | 100% | $3,208 | ||
16The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesOAInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 3.41Q1 | 8.80 0.39 up from 2019 | 641 | 99% | $4,499 | ||
17Physical Review LettersAmerican Physical Society · United States | 3.29Q1 | 9.86 0.48 up from 2019 | 8,084 | 89% | $3,750 | ||
18Progress in Quantum ElectronicsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.23Q1 | 12.88 3.55 up from 2019 | 31 | 37% | $4,090 | ||
19Nuclear Data SheetsElsevier BV · United States | 2.94Q1 | 8.98 5.05 up from 2019 | 93 | 48% | $3,240 | ||
20SciPost PhysicsOASciPost.org · Netherlands | 2.55Q1 | 7.01 0.86 up from 2019 | 337 | 100% | — | ||
21Nature AstronomyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.54Q1 | 6.71 2.37 up from 2019 | 877 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
22Reviews of Modern Plasma PhysicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 2.49Q1 | 5.50 2.18 down from 2019 | 34 | 50% | $3,590 | ||
23Progress in Surface ScienceElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.45Q1 | 5.13 1.54 down from 2019 | 31 | 38% | $4,130 | ||
24Chaos Solitons & FractalsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.20Q1 | 6.23 1.62 up from 2019 | 1,352 | 36% | $3,970 | ||
25The Astronomical JournalOAInstitute of Physics · United States | 2.19Q1 | 6.85 0.10 up from 2019 | 1,613 | 98% | $4,499 | ||
26Fortschritte der PhysikWiley · Germany | 2.17Q1 | 5.13 1.58 down from 2019 | 178 | 73% | $3,460 | ||
27Publications of the Astronomical Society of AustraliaCambridge University Press · Australia | 2.17Q1 | 5.08 0.28 down from 2019 | 169 | 98% | $3,550 | ||
28Publications of the Astronomical Society of the PacificInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 2.12Q1 | 5.63 1.15 up from 2019 | 426 | 93% | $3,325 | ||
29Adaptive Optics Systems VIPublisher not listed | 2.10Q1 | 0.78 0.24 up from 2019 | 218 | — | — | ||
30Communications PhysicsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.08Q1 | 6.27 1.17 up from 2019 | 260 | 100% | $3,990 | ||
31Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter WavePublisher not listed | 2.08Q1 | 0.96 0.01 down from 2019 | 195 | — | — | ||
32Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society LettersOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.03Q1 | 5.32 0.36 up from 2019 | 629 | 95% | $1,451 | ||
33Photonics ResearchOptica Publishing Group · United States | 2.01Q1 | 7.13 0.44 up from 2019 | 592 | 20% | — | ||
34npj Quantum MaterialsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 1.99Q1 | 6.43 0.05 up from 2019 | 195 | 100% | $2,890 | ||
35Applied Mathematics LettersElsevier BV · United States | 1.98Q1 | 4.11 0.30 up from 2019 | 1,033 | 97% | $3,800 | ||
36International Reviews in Physical ChemistryTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 6.09 0.92 up from 2019 | 36 | 24% | — | ||
37Journal of Artificial Societies and Social SimulationOAUniversity of Surrey · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 2.93 0.35 down from 2019 | 138 | 100% | $1,300 | ||
38Annual Review of Astronomy and AstrophysicsAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.97Q1 | 30.85 3.28 down from 2019 | 46 | 83% | — | ||
39Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIIPublisher not listed | 1.97Q1 | 1.02 0.54 up from 2019 | 293 | — | — | ||
40AstrobiologyMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.93Q1 | 5.17 0.25 down from 2019 | 313 | 53% | — | ||
41Physics Letters BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.93Q1 | 5.19 0.37 up from 2019 | 2,695 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
42Nonlinear DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.92Q1 | 5.19 0.05 up from 2019 | 2,114 | 27% | $4,790 | ||
43New Astronomy ReviewsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.91Q1 | 4.19 0.06 down from 2019 | 30 | 74% | $4,350 | ||
44APL PhotonicsOAAIP Publishing · United States | 1.91Q1 | 6.34 0.25 up from 2019 | 314 | 100% | $2,750 | ||
45Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma RayPublisher not listed | 1.87Q1 | 0.91 0.60 down from 2019 | 186 | — | — | ||
46Computer Physics CommunicationsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.87Q1 | 4.68 0.81 up from 2019 | 854 | 69% | $4,160 | ||
47Publications of the Astronomical Society of JapanOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.85Q1 | 3.35 1.23 down from 2019 | 495 | 82% | $2,398 | ||
48Comptes Rendus PhysiqueOAAcadémie des sciences · France | 1.80Q1 | 4.04 0.16 down from 2019 | 166 | 100% | — | ||
49Advances in Physics XOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.79Q1 | 6.97 2.30 up from 2019 | 102 | 100% | $1,895 | ||
50Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsInstitute of Physics · United Kingdom | 1.76Q1 | 5.74 0.48 up from 2019 | 2,001 | 97% | $3,290 |
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.
86 additional Physics and Astronomy 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
- 380
- Window papers (baseline)
- 375,462 -2.2% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 0.640 -3.0% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 36Comparison-group list (36)
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 | 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.