Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2021
Health Sciences journal rankings 2021
5,563 ranked journals · Domain
Health Sciences has 5,563 ranked journals in 2021. The median OJR fell 0.05 on 2020 to 0.68, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.14. The top three are CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, and New England Journal of Medicine.
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.
Fields in Health Sciences (5)
Up to All journals5,563 ranked journals
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CA A Cancer Journal for CliniciansOAWiley · United States | 120.83Q1 | 294.31 340.20 down from 2020 | 81 | 100% | $4,330 | ||
2MMWR Surveillance SummariesOACenters for Disease Control and Prevention · United States | 31.11Q1 | 67.38 16.83 down from 2020 | 37 | 100% | — | ||
3New England Journal of MedicineMassachusetts Medical Society · United States | 16.06Q1 | 61.78 29.09 up from 2020 | 3,414 | 42% | — | ||
4The LancetElsevier BV · Netherlands | 15.01Q1 | 57.61 32.61 up from 2020 | 3,001 | 65% | $7,890 | ||
5Nature MedicineNature Portfolio · United States | 12.40Q1 | 60.90 22.45 up from 2020 | 934 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
6Clinical Microbiology ReviewsAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 9.83Q1 | 40.53 10.15 up from 2020 | 104 | 100% | — | ||
7Endocrine ReviewsOxford University Press · United States | 8.84Q1 | 25.65 2.86 up from 2020 | 133 | 91% | $3,750 | ||
8Nature Reviews Disease PrimersNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.49Q1 | 56.52 3.88 up from 2020 | 153 | 36% | — | ||
9The Lancet NeurologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.95Q1 | 26.49 6.58 up from 2020 | 591 | 46% | $7,280 | ||
10The Lancet Respiratory MedicineElsevier BV · Netherlands | 7.46Q1 | 42.78 29.58 up from 2020 | 633 | 78% | $7,280 | ||
11MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly ReportOACenters for Disease Control and Prevention · United States | 7.45Q1 | 36.63 18.09 up from 2020 | 906 | 100% | — | ||
12The Lancet OncologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 7.00Q1 | 26.60 6.89 up from 2020 | 1,110 | 30% | $7,280 | ||
13Journal of Clinical OncologyLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 6.69Q1 | 23.10 3.15 up from 2020 | 1,402 | 7% | — | ||
14European Heart JournalOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 6.55Q1 | 19.70 0.47 down from 2020 | 1,435 | 64% | $5,922 | ||
15CirculationLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 6.46Q1 | 23.02 6.25 up from 2020 | 2,060 | 12% | — | ||
16Periodontology 2000Wiley · United Kingdom | 6.34Q1 | 15.10 6.40 up from 2020 | 142 | 60% | $4,430 | ||
17npj Digital MedicineOANature Portfolio · United States | 6.30Q1 | 19.80 2.74 up from 2020 | 333 | 100% | $4,090 | ||
18Cancer CellCell Press · Netherlands | 6.20Q1 | 24.57no change | 527 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
19The Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.01Q1 | 19.89 4.63 up from 2020 | 470 | 52% | $7,280 | ||
20Progress in Retinal and Eye ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.73Q1 | 17.65 0.36 up from 2020 | 153 | 60% | $6,710 | ||
21Journal of the American College of CardiologyElsevier BV · United States | 5.60Q1 | 16.23 1.61 up from 2020 | 2,167 | 100% | $7,166 | ||
22RadiologyRadiological Society of North America · United States | 5.29Q1 | 22.30 13.85 up from 2020 | 1,351 | 33% | — | ||
23Journal of Hematology & OncologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.27Q1 | 23.76 4.93 up from 2020 | 438 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
24Journal of HepatologyElsevier BV · Denmark | 5.19Q1 | 16.91 0.37 up from 2020 | 1,060 | 59% | $5,500 | ||
25Molecular NeurodegenerationOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.17Q1 | 20.71 4.79 up from 2020 | 179 | 100% | $3,090 | ||
26Alzheimer s & DementiaWiley · United States | 5.14Q1 | 12.99 4.04 down from 2020 | 490 | 35% | $4,200 | ||
27Journal of Aging & Social PolicyTaylor & Francis · United States | 5.07Q1 | 10.57 8.14 up from 2020 | 129 | 28% | — | ||
28The Lancet Child & Adolescent HealthElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.05Q1 | 18.72 11.54 up from 2020 | 478 | 50% | $6,680 | ||
29The Lancet Infectious DiseasesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.00Q1 | 31.85 21.98 up from 2020 | 1,178 | 70% | $7,280 | ||
30The Lancet Global HealthOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.86Q1 | 16.99 5.66 up from 2020 | 931 | 100% | $6,680 | ||
31JAMA NeurologyAmerican Medical Association · United States | 4.72Q1 | 16.55 6.76 up from 2020 | 826 | 60% | — | ||
32Annals of OncologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.65Q1 | 18.80 1.72 up from 2020 | 1,059 | 98% | $5,080 | ||
33Cancer DiscoveryAmerican Association for Cancer Research · United States | 4.64Q1 | 15.92 0.31 up from 2020 | 610 | 61% | — | ||
34GutBMJ · United Kingdom | 4.61Q1 | 17.99 3.44 up from 2020 | 963 | 56% | — | ||
35Diabetes CareAmerican Diabetes Association · United States | 4.59Q1 | 14.26 0.54 down from 2020 | 1,484 | 81% | — | ||
36General PsychiatryOABMJ · United Kingdom | 4.58Q1 | 17.49 15.03 up from 2020 | 160 | 100% | — | ||
37The Lancet Digital HealthOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.58Q1 | 18.87 10.20 up from 2020 | 208 | 100% | $6,680 | ||
38JAMA CardiologyAmerican Medical Association · United States | 4.57Q1 | 15.14 8.06 up from 2020 | 961 | 56% | — | ||
39The Lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.54Q1 | 22.63 12.17 up from 2020 | 465 | 36% | $7,280 | ||
40European UrologyElsevier BV · Switzerland | 4.45Q1 | 14.81 1.57 up from 2020 | 804 | 14% | $5,250 | ||
41Annals of Internal MedicineAmerican College of Physicians · United States | 4.30Q1 | 15.07 7.73 up from 2020 | 1,597 | 26% | — | ||
42Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer NetworkNational Comprehensive Cancer | 4.29Q1 | 13.44 0.95 up from 2020 | 524 | 59% | — | ||
43Dental Oral and Maxillofacial ResearchUnited Kingdom | 4.29Q1 | 14.33 8.43 up from 2020 | 79 | 95% | — | ||
44Acta NeuropathologicaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 4.24Q1 | 13.62 0.41 down from 2020 | 408 | 88% | $4,990 | ||
45Medical Image AnalysisElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.12Q1 | 13.54 2.15 up from 2020 | 505 | 62% | $4,170 | ||
46Nature CancerNature Portfolio · United States | 4.04Q1 | 15.78 0.89 down from 2020 | 135 | 55% | $12,690 | ||
47Physical Education and Sport PedagogyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.02Q1 | 5.48 0.80 down from 2020 | 157 | 56% | — | ||
48IEEE Transactions on Medical ImagingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers · United States | 4.00Q1 | 11.55 0.67 up from 2020 | 893 | 55% | $2,645 | ||
49The Lancet HaematologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.92Q1 | 15.97 7.61 up from 2020 | 354 | 37% | $7,280 | ||
50OphthalmologyElsevier BV · United States | 3.90Q1 | 8.69 0.77 down from 2020 | 828 | 62% | $4,990 |
Fields of Health Sciences, compared.
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.
1,408 additional Health Sciences 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
- 5,563
- Window papers (baseline)
- 3,078,764 +16.2% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.680 -4.8% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 464
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 | 2,007 | 2,150 | 2,285 | 2,374 | 2,486 | 2,626 | 2,757 | 2,922 | 3,062 | 3,193 | 3,364 | 3,591 | 3,809 | 4,129 | 4,361 | 4,544 | 4,757 | 4,979 | 5,239 | 5,390 | 5,462 | 5,563 | 5,606 | 5,618 | 5,549 | 5,406 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 813,419 | 909,304 | 974,228 | 1,051,248 | 1,094,845 | 1,200,886 | 1,317,521 | 1,455,690 | 1,577,275 | 1,733,757 | 1,887,930 | 2,035,231 | 2,126,669 | 2,204,628 | 2,320,572 | 2,437,477 | 2,534,543 | 2,585,157 | 2,649,222 | 2,728,712 | 2,846,138 | 3,078,764 | 3,332,730 | 3,490,788 | 3,507,496 | 3,550,948 | |
| Median OJR | 0.50 | 0.53 | 0.56 | 0.59 | 0.61 | 0.63 | 0.6778 | 0.70 | 0.726 | 0.748 | 0.767 | 0.773 | 0.78 | 0.741 | 0.76 | 0.750 | 0.737 | 0.727 | 0.71 | 0.725 | 0.735 | 0.680 | 0.67 | 0.6776 | 0.681 | 0.69 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 3.3% | 4,151 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 1.372 per 1,000 | 4,101 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -6.3% | 5,009 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 100.0% | 5,406 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,090 | 2,959 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 20.2% | 5,241 journals |
| Review share | Median: 2.7% | 5,406 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.70 | 5,372 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 37.7% | 5,406 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 46.2% | 5,398 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.