Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2021
Epidemiology journal rankings 2021
204 ranked journals · Subfield in Medicine
Epidemiology has 204 ranked journals in 2021. The median journal has an OJR of 0.76, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.02 on 2020; Q1 starts at OJR 1.21. The top three are Journal of Hepatology, The Lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology, and Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2021. 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 2018–2020, the window the 2021 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 Medicine (42)
- Surgery985
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine362
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health303
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine297
- Oncology239
- Infectious Diseases234
- Epidemiology204
- Neurology172
- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging170
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism163
- Physiology163
- Psychiatry and Mental health145
Show all 42 subfields
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine124
- Ophthalmology103
- Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health101
- Dermatology99
- Hematology83
- Obstetrics and Gynecology83
- Rheumatology67
- Nephrology61
- Pharmacology54
- Complementary and alternative medicine50
- Reproductive Medicine49
- Emergency Medicine45
- Geriatrics and Gerontology39
- Rehabilitation37
- Otorhinolaryngology35
- Hepatology29
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine26
- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine24
- Immunology and Allergy23
- Genetics20
- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine14
- Urology14
- Gastroenterology6
- Health Informatics5
- Internal Medicine5
- Transplantation3
- Family Practice2
- Biochemistry1
- Anatomy0
- Microbiology0
204 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 2020. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2018–2020, the window the 2021 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2018–2020 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 2012 to 2021. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of HepatologyElsevier BV · Denmark | 5.19Q1 | 16.91 0.37 up from 2020 | 1,060 | 59% | $5,500 | ||
2The Lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.54Q1 | 22.63 12.17 up from 2020 | 465 | 36% | $7,280 | ||
3Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & HepatologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.71Q1 | 23.28 8.19 up from 2020 | 433 | 34% | — | ||
4AutophagyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.70Q1 | 11.31 0.08 up from 2020 | 525 | 100% | — | ||
5MetabolismElsevier BV · United States | 2.81Q1 | 8.95 0.83 up from 2020 | 469 | 24% | $5,340 | ||
6StrokeLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 2.51Q1 | 8.14 1.53 up from 2020 | 2,024 | 32% | — | ||
7Stroke and Vascular NeurologyOABMJ · China | 2.22Q1 | 7.71 3.46 up from 2020 | 167 | 100% | $1,839 | ||
8Seminars in Liver DiseaseThieme Medical Publishers (Germany) · United States | 2.11Q1 | 7.32 0.77 up from 2020 | 121 | 44% | — | ||
9Clinical Gastroenterology and HepatologyElsevier BV · United States | 2.04Q1 | 6.77 0.23 up from 2020 | 1,555 | 53% | $4,470 | ||
10Stroke Research and TreatmentOAHindawi Publishing Corporation · United Kingdom | 2.01Q1 | 2.62 2.26 down from 2020 | 45 | 100% | $1,000 | ||
11Harm Reduction JournalOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.97Q1 | 5.66 0.38 up from 2020 | 235 | 100% | $3,290 | ||
12International Journal of StrokeSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.93Q1 | 7.03 2.82 up from 2020 | 380 | 47% | $4,400 | ||
13International Breastfeeding JournalOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.90Q1 | 5.73 0.40 up from 2020 | 201 | 100% | $3,090 | ||
14Journal of Intensive CareOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.89Q1 | 6.12 0.90 up from 2020 | 277 | 100% | $2,577 | ||
15Journal of StrokeOASouth Korea | 1.81Q1 | 5.74 0.22 down from 2020 | 139 | 100% | — | ||
16AddictionWiley · United Kingdom | 1.78Q1 | 5.78 0.50 up from 2020 | 865 | 72% | $4,600 | ||
17Infectious Disease Clinics of North AmericaElsevier BV · United States | 1.78Q1 | 7.05 0.80 down from 2020 | 168 | 19% | $4,050 | ||
18International Journal of Drug PolicyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.77Q1 | 5.23 0.03 down from 2020 | 823 | 52% | $4,350 | ||
19Journal of Clinical VirologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.71Q1 | 15.53 12.07 up from 2020 | 596 | 69% | $4,210 | ||
20Alimentary Pharmacology & TherapeuticsWiley · United Kingdom | 1.70Q1 | 6.85 0.54 up from 2020 | 1,014 | 57% | $5,250 | ||
21Journal of ComorbidityOASwiss Medical Press GmbH · United Kingdom | 1.70Q1 | 5.05 0.11 down from 2020 | 49 | — | $1,500 | ||
22Journal of VirologyOAAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 1.67Q1 | 7.01 1.36 up from 2020 | 2,291 | 99% | — | ||
23European Addiction ResearchKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 1.66Q1 | 4.59 1.08 up from 2020 | 102 | 56% | — | ||
24Addictive Behaviors ReportsOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.66Q1 | 4.85 0.99 up from 2020 | 217 | 100% | $3,330 | ||
25NeuroendocrinologyKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 1.65Q1 | 4.67 0.65 up from 2020 | 288 | 46% | — | ||
26Clinical EpidemiologyOADove Medical Press · New Zealand | 1.65Q1 | 6.21 0.70 up from 2020 | 385 | 100% | $2,836 | ||
27Clinical and Molecular HepatologyOAKorean Association for the Study of the Liver · South Korea | 1.64Q1 | 5.76 0.58 up from 2020 | 195 | 100% | $32 | ||
28Papillomavirus ResearchOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.62Q1 | 5.03 0.60 up from 2020 | 107 | — | $900 | ||
29Journal of NeuroInterventional SurgeryBMJ · United Kingdom | 1.62Q1 | 6.43 0.86 up from 2020 | 821 | 32% | — | ||
30Hepatology CommunicationsOALippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.60Q1 | 5.58 0.27 up from 2020 | 466 | 100% | $2,700 | ||
31European Stroke JournalSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.59Q1 | 4.66 0.51 down from 2020 | 119 | 91% | $4,400 | ||
32Current Opinion in Infectious DiseasesLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.58Q1 | 5.71 0.31 down from 2020 | 233 | 26% | — | ||
33Influenza and Other Respiratory VirusesOAWiley · United Kingdom | 1.52Q1 | 5.83 0.72 up from 2020 | 266 | 100% | $4,840 | ||
34Expert Review of VaccinesOAInforma · United States | 1.52Q1 | 5.93 0.02 up from 2020 | 270 | 58% | — | ||
35Psychology of Addictive BehaviorsAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 1.50Q1 | 3.81 0.29 up from 2020 | 260 | 61% | — | ||
36Journal of Clinical and Translational HepatologyOAUnited States | 1.47Q1 | 5.70 1.51 up from 2020 | 175 | 100% | — | ||
37Journal of NeurotraumaMary Ann Liebert, Inc. · United States | 1.44Q1 | 4.71 0.25 down from 2020 | 874 | 50% | — | ||
38The Clinical NeuropsychologistTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.41Q1 | 4.81 1.27 up from 2020 | 286 | 37% | — | ||
39Antiviral chemistry & chemotherapySAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.41Q1 | 3.72 4.75 down from 2020 | 34 | 100% | $1,500 | ||
40The Italian Journal of Pediatrics/Italian journal of pediatricsOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.41Q1 | 4.23 0.85 up from 2020 | 496 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
41Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and PolicyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.39Q1 | 4.46 1.25 up from 2020 | 193 | 100% | $3,090 | ||
42Ophthalmic and Physiological OpticsWiley · United Kingdom | 1.36Q1 | 4.09 1.33 up from 2020 | 202 | 42% | $4,050 | ||
43Veterinary ResearchOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.34Q1 | 4.50 0.07 up from 2020 | 366 | 100% | $2,390 | ||
44Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental ResearchWiley · United States | 1.31Q1 | 3.83 0.15 up from 2020 | 699 | 68% | $4,110 | ||
45Journal of NeuroendocrinologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.27Q1 | 3.71 0.02 up from 2020 | 331 | 51% | $4,550 | ||
46Liver ResearchOAElsevier BV · China | 1.24Q1 | 3.97 0.02 up from 2020 | 100 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
47VaccineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.24Q1 | 4.65 0.97 up from 2020 | 3,126 | 67% | $3,620 | ||
48Jornal de PediatriaOAElsevier BV · Brazil | 1.24Q1 | 3.97 1.67 up from 2020 | 318 | 100% | $1,800 | ||
49Journal of Critical CareElsevier BV · United States | 1.22Q1 | 4.10 0.83 up from 2020 | 866 | 53% | $3,610 | ||
50ULTRASONOGRAPHYOAKorean Society of Ultrasound in Medicine · South Korea | 1.21Q1 | 3.33 0.77 down from 2020 | 136 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Medicine, with Epidemiology highlighted.
- Surgery985
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine362
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health303
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine297
- Oncology239
- Infectious Diseases234
- Epidemiology204
- Neurology172
- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging170
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism163
- Physiology163
- Psychiatry and Mental health145
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine124
- Ophthalmology103
- Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health101
- Dermatology99
- Hematology83
- Obstetrics and Gynecology83
- Rheumatology67
- Nephrology61
- Pharmacology54
- Complementary and alternative medicine50
- Reproductive Medicine49
- Emergency Medicine45
- Geriatrics and Gerontology39
- Rehabilitation37
- Otorhinolaryngology35
- Hepatology29
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine26
- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine24
- Immunology and Allergy23
- Genetics20
- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine14
- Urology14
- Gastroenterology6
- Health Informatics5
- Internal Medicine5
- Transplantation3
- Family Practice2
- Biochemistry1
- Anatomy0
- Microbiology0
Journals
Citations made in 2021. Corpus-wide, 87.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
76 additional Epidemiology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2018–2020, 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: 2021. Publication window: 2018–2020. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 204
- Window papers (baseline)
- 200,238 +14.6% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.755 +1.9% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 17
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2018–2020 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 | 77 | 81 | 87 | 89 | 94 | 91 | 97 | 108 | 114 | 119 | 129 | 139 | 147 | 157 | 166 | 176 | 187 | 185 | 193 | 198 | 196 | 204 | 196 | 199 | 187 | 178 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 48,701 | 54,887 | 59,554 | 64,149 | 67,383 | 74,616 | 83,633 | 94,079 | 103,216 | 113,942 | 125,223 | 136,221 | 144,307 | 149,052 | 156,773 | 162,831 | 168,650 | 170,014 | 174,699 | 179,855 | 189,056 | 200,238 | 212,651 | 217,205 | 217,754 | 220,321 | |
| Median OJR | 0.668 | 0.61 | 0.670 | 0.71 | 0.69 | 0.82223 | 0.85 | 0.8287 | 0.835 | 0.86 | 0.8293 | 0.830 | 0.87 | 0.844 | 0.836 | 0.795 | 0.82224 | 0.803 | 0.74 | 0.832 | 0.78 | 0.755 | 0.81 | 0.787 | 0.760 | 0.797 |
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.