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
Surgery journal rankings 2021
985 ranked journals · Subfield in Medicine
Surgery has 985 ranked journals in 2021. The median journal has an OJR of 0.46, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.03 on 2020; Q1 starts at OJR 0.89. The top three are Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Gut, and World Journal of Emergency Surgery.
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
985 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Nature Reviews Disease PrimersNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.49Q1 | 56.52 3.88 up from 2020 | 153 | 36% | — | ||
2GutBMJ · United Kingdom | 4.61Q1 | 17.99 3.44 up from 2020 | 963 | 56% | — | ||
3World Journal of Emergency SurgeryOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 3.84Q1 | 12.12 4.58 up from 2020 | 177 | 100% | $3,990 | ||
4GastroenterologyElsevier BV · United States | 3.54Q1 | 13.92 3.18 up from 2020 | 1,978 | 23% | $4,180 | ||
5Turkish Journal of Emergency MedicineOAElsevier BV · India | 2.81Q1 | 1.24 5.47 down from 2020 | 120 | 100% | — | ||
6EFORT Open ReviewsOABritish Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery · United Kingdom | 2.68Q1 | 6.78 0.22 down from 2020 | 247 | 100% | $1,800 | ||
7Journal of Bone and Joint SurgeryWolters Kluwer · United States | 2.67Q1 | 5.89 0.74 up from 2020 | 1,250 | 13% | — | ||
8The American Journal of Sports MedicineSAGE Publishing · United States | 2.66Q1 | 7.00 0.41 up from 2020 | 1,194 | 22% | $4,400 | ||
9RadiographicsRadiological Society of North America · United States | 2.56Q1 | 6.66 0.52 up from 2020 | 435 | 12% | — | ||
10Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal MedicineSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.53Q1 | 5.63 0.04 down from 2020 | 228 | 100% | $4,590 | ||
11The Bone & Joint JournalBritish Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery · United Kingdom | 2.46Q1 | 6.13 0.05 down from 2020 | 868 | 20% | — | ||
12The Journal of Heart and Lung TransplantationElsevier BV · United States | 2.42Q1 | 8.64 0.94 up from 2020 | 572 | 73% | $3,606 | ||
13DiabetesAmerican Diabetes Association · United States | 2.33Q1 | 6.76 0.23 up from 2020 | 803 | 13% | — | ||
14British Medical BulletinOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.31Q1 | 6.46 0.56 up from 2020 | 111 | 39% | $4,362 | ||
15HelicobacterWiley · United Kingdom | 2.28Q1 | 5.43 0.63 down from 2020 | 261 | 14% | $4,150 | ||
16JAMA SurgeryAmerican Medical Association · United States | 2.26Q1 | 5.33 0.30 up from 2020 | 1,175 | 46% | — | ||
17Annals of SurgeryLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 2.24Q1 | 5.74 1.27 down from 2020 | 1,900 | 32% | — | ||
18Global Imaging InsightsOAUnited Kingdom | 2.13Q1 | 8.87 2.07 up from 2020 | 66 | 100% | — | ||
19The Journal of ArthroplastyElsevier BV · United States | 2.12Q1 | 4.48 1.23 down from 2020 | 1,989 | 20% | $4,650 | ||
20The American Journal of Surgical PathologyLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 2.06Q1 | 5.88 0.45 down from 2020 | 633 | 23% | — | ||
21International Journal of SurgeryWolters Kluwer · United Kingdom | 2.06Q1 | 9.90 3.99 up from 2020 | 1,237 | 56% | $3,450 | ||
22Current Atherosclerosis ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.05Q1 | 6.89 0.99 up from 2020 | 186 | 60% | $5,190 | ||
23Acta OrthopaedicaOATaylor & Francis · Sweden | 2.04Q1 | 4.63 0.50 up from 2020 | 379 | 100% | $1,779 | ||
24Current Gastroenterology ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.04Q1 | 5.98 1.46 up from 2020 | 190 | 17% | $3,790 | ||
25Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic SurgeonsPublisher not listed | 1.98Q1 | 4.35 0.78 up from 2020 | 829 | 2% | — | ||
26British journal of surgeryOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.94Q1 | 7.51 0.98 up from 2020 | 953 | 63% | $5,007 | ||
27British Journal of AnaesthesiaElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.88Q1 | 6.36 0.69 up from 2020 | 1,357 | 99% | $4,450 | ||
28AtherosclerosisElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.88Q1 | 6.48 0.89 up from 2020 | 1,113 | 17% | $4,020 | ||
29Obesity FactsOAKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 1.88Q1 | 5.97 0.70 up from 2020 | 175 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
30JBJS Open AccessOAWolters Kluwer · United States | 1.87Q1 | 3.86 0.12 up from 2020 | 149 | 100% | $2,250 | ||
31World Journal of GastroenterologyBaishideng Publishing Group · United States | 1.83Q1 | 6.09 0.64 down from 2020 | 1,630 | 99% | — | ||
32Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North AmericaElsevier BV · United States | 1.83Q1 | 3.09 0.61 down from 2020 | 152 | 3% | $3,000 | ||
33Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology ArthroscopySpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.82Q1 | 4.59 0.36 up from 2020 | 1,465 | 39% | $4,300 | ||
34Journal of Orthopaedics and TraumatologyOASpringer Nature · Italy | 1.79Q1 | 5.24 1.43 up from 2020 | 65 | 100% | $3,190 | ||
35Local and Regional AnesthesiaOADove Medical Press · New Zealand | 1.77Q1 | 2.84 0.86 down from 2020 | 63 | 100% | $2,320 | ||
36Journal of the American College of SurgeonsLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.76Q1 | 4.95 0.16 up from 2020 | 739 | 38% | $3,600 | ||
37AnesthesiologyLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.75Q1 | 4.51 0.01 down from 2020 | 1,105 | 52% | — | ||
38Translational PediatricsOAAME Publishing Company · Hong Kong SAR China | 1.74Q1 | 5.34 2.52 up from 2020 | 210 | 100% | — | ||
39Surgical Clinics of North AmericaElsevier BV · United States | 1.74Q1 | 4.59 0.75 up from 2020 | 251 | 10% | $3,190 | ||
40Pain and TherapyOAAdis, Springer Healthcare · United Kingdom | 1.74Q1 | 4.56 1.77 down from 2020 | 123 | 100% | $7,400 | ||
41American Journal of TransplantationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.73Q1 | 7.49 2.46 up from 2020 | 1,392 | 88% | $4,300 | ||
42Arthroscopy The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related SurgeryElsevier BV · United States | 1.72Q1 | 5.21 0.50 up from 2020 | 1,078 | 48% | $3,500 | ||
43BioScience TrendsOAJapan | 1.69Q1 | 10.25 7.43 up from 2020 | 244 | 100% | — | ||
44Journal of surgical educationElsevier BV · United States | 1.69Q1 | 4.14 1.29 up from 2020 | 767 | 18% | $3,420 | ||
45The American Journal of GastroenterologyLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 1.69Q1 | 5.51 0.47 up from 2020 | 1,317 | 2% | $4,390 | ||
46Gastroenterology ReviewOATermedia Publishing House · Poland | 1.68Q1 | 7.30 2.85 up from 2020 | 159 | 100% | $103 | ||
47Bone and Joint ResearchOAJournal of Bone and Joint Surgery · United Kingdom | 1.68Q1 | 4.51 1.47 down from 2020 | 258 | 100% | $1,594 | ||
48Regional Anesthesia & Pain MedicineBMJ · United Kingdom | 1.67Q1 | 3.32 0.81 down from 2020 | 701 | 26% | — | ||
49Journal of Shoulder and Elbow SurgeryElsevier BV · United States | 1.67Q1 | 4.12 0.22 down from 2020 | 1,313 | 18% | $3,850 | ||
50Journal of Clinical MedicineOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.66Q1 | 5.90 0.73 up from 2020 | 6,990 | 100% | $3,137 |
Subfields of Medicine, with Surgery 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.
211 additional Surgery 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
- 985
- Window papers (baseline)
- 304,057 +15.3% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.458 -5.1% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 87
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 | 316 | 336 | 358 | 378 | 391 | 409 | 428 | 444 | 474 | 500 | 531 | 570 | 610 | 675 | 734 | 773 | 821 | 852 | 901 | 936 | 962 | 985 | 1,001 | 993 | 980 | 945 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 91,365 | 104,064 | 110,345 | 118,403 | 120,545 | 132,135 | 144,236 | 159,671 | 171,317 | 188,308 | 202,162 | 216,202 | 221,967 | 228,874 | 238,791 | 247,306 | 252,044 | 254,527 | 263,607 | 275,745 | 288,629 | 304,057 | 320,840 | 331,064 | 332,656 | 336,566 | |
| Median OJR | 0.350 | 0.33 | 0.336 | 0.342 | 0.3484 | 0.3482 | 0.37 | 0.452 | 0.443 | 0.43 | 0.4390 | 0.4538 | 0.463 | 0.461 | 0.470 | 0.50 | 0.471 | 0.486 | 0.483 | 0.484 | 0.493 | 0.458 | 0.4386 | 0.446 | 0.4542 | 0.448 |
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.