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
Physiology journal rankings 2021
163 ranked journals · Subfield in Medicine
Physiology has 163 ranked journals in 2021. The median journal has an OJR of 0.89, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.05 on 2020; Q1 starts at OJR 1.43. The top three are Molecular Neurodegeneration, Acta Neuropathologica, and Current Obesity Reports.
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
163 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Molecular NeurodegenerationOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.17Q1 | 20.71 4.79 up from 2020 | 179 | 100% | $3,090 | ||
2Acta NeuropathologicaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 4.24Q1 | 13.62 0.41 down from 2020 | 408 | 88% | $4,990 | ||
3Current Obesity ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.62Q1 | 9.73 0.54 up from 2020 | 122 | 64% | $5,790 | ||
4Journal of sport and health science/Journal of Sport and Health ScienceOAElsevier BV · China | 3.20Q1 | 10.23 3.39 up from 2020 | 238 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
5Nature Reviews EndocrinologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.16Q1 | 16.69 4.96 up from 2020 | 489 | 28% | — | ||
6Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and MuscleOASpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 3.00Q1 | 12.74 0.53 up from 2020 | 347 | 100% | $5,400 | ||
7Sports Medicine and Health ScienceOAElsevier BV · China | 2.74Q1 | 7.88 3.11 up from 2020 | 43 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
8Current Nutrition ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.57Q1 | 6.94 0.53 down from 2020 | 116 | 55% | $4,690 | ||
9PainLippincott Williams & Wilkins · Netherlands | 2.36Q1 | 6.71 0.10 down from 2020 | 987 | 58% | — | ||
10NutrientsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 2.32Q1 | 8.00 0.85 up from 2020 | 9,009 | 100% | $3,499 | ||
11ObesityWiley · United States | 2.26Q1 | 9.10 4.60 up from 2020 | 875 | 64% | $4,980 | ||
12American Journal of Preventive MedicineElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.17Q1 | 6.56 0.71 up from 2020 | 898 | 66% | $3,300 | ||
13Nutrition and DiabetesOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 2.09Q1 | 5.78 0.70 down from 2020 | 131 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
14Exercise and Sport Sciences ReviewsLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.99Q1 | 6.90 0.92 up from 2020 | 100 | 42% | — | ||
15GeroScienceSpringer International Publishing · Switzerland | 1.96Q1 | 7.80 0.23 down from 2020 | 289 | 100% | $2,890 | ||
16MedicinesOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.95Q1 | 5.16 1.18 down from 2020 | 309 | 100% | $1,689 | ||
17Clinical NutritionElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.94Q1 | 5.88 0.57 down from 2020 | 1,217 | 50% | $3,320 | ||
18The journal of nutrition health & agingOASpringer Science+Business Media · France | 1.89Q1 | 6.87 2.24 up from 2020 | 546 | 99% | $3,450 | ||
19npj MicrogravityOANature Portfolio · United States | 1.82Q1 | 6.47 1.28 up from 2020 | 90 | 100% | $3,690 | ||
20European Review of Aging and Physical ActivityOABioMed Central · Germany | 1.80Q1 | 7.67 2.63 up from 2020 | 61 | 100% | $3,090 | ||
21International Journal of ObesitySpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 1.75Q1 | 6.27 1.27 up from 2020 | 692 | 66% | $4,790 | ||
22The Journals of Gerontology Series AOxford University Press · United States | 1.74Q1 | 6.06 1.30 up from 2020 | 901 | 78% | $4,408 | ||
23Mental health and physical activityElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.73Q1 | 6.28 2.15 up from 2020 | 110 | 47% | $3,360 | ||
24PAIN ReportsOAWolters Kluwer · United States | 1.70Q1 | 4.61 0.44 up from 2020 | 222 | 100% | $2,500 | ||
25American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and MetabolismAmerican Physiological Society · United States | 1.68Q1 | 6.34 1.96 up from 2020 | 581 | 66% | — | ||
26Nutrition & MetabolismOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.67Q1 | 5.09 0.19 down from 2020 | 279 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
27Preventive MedicineElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.66Q1 | 5.09 0.61 up from 2020 | 917 | 60% | $3,650 | ||
28European Journal of Clinical NutritionSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 1.59Q1 | 5.64 2.02 up from 2020 | 739 | 38% | $3,590 | ||
29Mechanisms of Ageing and DevelopmentElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.57Q1 | 5.55 0.01 down from 2020 | 290 | 47% | $4,780 | ||
30Advances in SimulationOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.54Q1 | 5.37 2.05 up from 2020 | 86 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
31NutritionElsevier BV · United States | 1.52Q1 | 4.99 0.78 up from 2020 | 866 | 29% | $3,870 | ||
32The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology In PracticeElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.51Q1 | 5.90 1.20 up from 2020 | 1,649 | 53% | $4,000 | ||
33Tobacco ControlBMJ · United Kingdom | 1.49Q1 | 4.69 1.62 down from 2020 | 587 | 70% | — | ||
34Journal of Obesity & Metabolic SyndromeOAKorean Society for the Study of Obesity · South Korea | 1.49Q1 | 5.04 1.07 up from 2020 | 131 | 100% | — | ||
35Addictive BehaviorsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.49Q1 | 4.46 0.06 up from 2020 | 1,194 | 58% | $4,450 | ||
36Brain PlasticityOAIOS Press · Netherlands | 1.48Q1 | 3.97 0.43 down from 2020 | 45 | 100% | — | ||
37Journal of Family and Community MedicineOAMedknow · Saudi Arabia | 1.48Q1 | 3.90 0.38 up from 2020 | 106 | 100% | $200 | ||
38TemperatureTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.46Q1 | 5.70 0.97 up from 2020 | 78 | 100% | — | ||
39Aging Clinical and Experimental ResearchSpringer Science+Business Media · Italy | 1.46Q1 | 4.77 1.64 up from 2020 | 846 | 58% | $4,490 | ||
40Annals of Behavioral MedicineOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.45Q1 | 3.54 1.86 down from 2020 | 335 | 52% | $4,433 | ||
41Allergy Asthma and Immunology ResearchOASouth Korea | 1.43Q1 | 4.32 1.20 down from 2020 | 241 | 100% | — | ||
42Journal of Asthma and AllergyOADove Medical Press · New Zealand | 1.41Q2 | 3.42 2.00 down from 2020 | 140 | 100% | $2,836 | ||
43Nutrition ReviewsOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.41Q2 | 6.46 0.43 down from 2020 | 307 | 46% | $4,981 | ||
44Experimental GerontologyOAElsevier BV · United States | 1.35Q2 | 4.53 0.29 up from 2020 | 803 | 40% | $3,400 | ||
45Nitric OxideElsevier BV · United States | 1.32Q2 | 4.79 0.07 up from 2020 | 293 | 35% | $3,400 | ||
46Ageing Research ReviewsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.32Q2 | 13.16 1.20 up from 2020 | 319 | 54% | $5,520 | ||
47Clinical ChemistryAmerican Association for Clinical Chemistry · United States | 1.29Q2 | 5.47 1.85 up from 2020 | 847 | 70% | $4,636 | ||
48Journal of Clinical Sleep MedicineAmerican Academy of Sleep Medicine · United States | 1.29Q2 | 3.93 0.25 up from 2020 | 955 | 100% | — | ||
49BiogerontologySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.27Q2 | 4.17 0.43 down from 2020 | 157 | 47% | $4,790 | ||
50Preventive Medicine ReportsOAElsevier BV · United States | 1.26Q2 | 3.56 0.13 down from 2020 | 680 | 100% | $2,610 |
Subfields of Medicine, with Physiology 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.
54 additional Physiology 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
- 163
- Window papers (baseline)
- 121,103 +14.7% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.89 +1.0% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 9
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 | 59 | 62 | 62 | 67 | 67 | 72 | 75 | 82 | 89 | 91 | 95 | 104 | 110 | 120 | 127 | 129 | 131 | 143 | 155 | 160 | 163 | 163 | 162 | 161 | 159 | 154 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 43,956 | 48,028 | 49,863 | 52,236 | 52,608 | 55,626 | 58,658 | 62,565 | 65,322 | 70,406 | 76,421 | 81,146 | 83,401 | 84,300 | 88,598 | 93,045 | 98,474 | 102,056 | 105,556 | 109,112 | 113,571 | 121,103 | 127,537 | 130,703 | 130,394 | 133,596 | |
| Median OJR | 0.59 | 0.63 | 0.80 | 0.71 | 0.73 | 0.74 | 0.778 | 0.781 | 0.85 | 0.91 | 0.836 | 0.90 | 0.99 | 0.943 | 0.975 | 0.970 | 0.96 | 0.940 | 0.878 | 0.837 | 0.841 | 0.89 | 0.93 | 0.884 | 0.82 | 0.87 |
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.