This blog post of PhDTalks aims to discuss all the various indicators to determine the quality of a research journal.
It is always suggested to publish in quality research journals. We will be discussing, what does the quality of a journal mean?
We will provide you with a few ways to determine the quality of research journals. It will help you in selecting reputed research journals for your research. Moreover, We will also be listing the top 50 research journals based on impact factors.
There are various journal ranking metrics used to evaluate the quality of research journals like Impact Factor, Scopus SJR, and Journal Quartile. The quality of research journals can also be determined by the journals’ publishers. The publishers publish research journals. The reputed/ top publishers publish quality journals.
In the next section, we are listing the various well-known research journal quality indicators. Further, the top journal publishers are listed.
More posts to read:
- How to write and publish a research paper?
- Steps to identify fake journals | Recognize predatory journals
- Tips for publishing in high-impact factor journals
- Best tools, and websites for Ph.D. students/ researchers/ graduates
Page Contents
Research journal quality indicators
There are various ranking metrics used to measure the quality of a journal including impact factor, SNIP, SJR, and journal quartile.
Impact Factor
The Clarivate has released the latest JCR 2022 including journals’ impact factors.
The impact factor is used to measure the quality of a journal. The more the impact factor of a journal, the better the quality of the journal.
The Journal Impact Factor is defined as citations to the journal in the JCR year to items published in the previous two years, divided by the total number of publications in the journal in the previous two years.
Researchers can visit journalsearches.com to find the latest journal impact factor 2022 of any journal.
SNIP
The Source-Normalized Impact per Paper measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a given subject field.
Again, researchers can visit journalsearches.com to find SNIP, SJR, and quartile of any journal.
SJR
A journal’s SJR indicator is a numeric value representing the average number of weighted citations received during a selected year per document published in that journal during the previous three years, as indexed by Scopus.
Higher SJR indicator values are meant to indicate greater journal prestige.
Journal Quartile
Each subject category of journals is divided into four quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4.
Q1 is occupied by the top 25% of journals in the list; Q2 is occupied by journals in the 25 to 50% group; Q3 is occupied by journals in the 50 to 75% group and Q4 is occupied by journals in the 75 to 100% group.
Researchers can visit https://journalsearches.com to find impact factors, SNIP, SJR, and Journal Quartile of research journals.
Top journal publishers
The top journal publishers are also good indicators of reputed journals. Earlier, we published a blog post on the top academic publishers in the world.
All the papers published by these top publishers are of high quality.
• Cambridge University Press
• Elsevier
• Springer
• Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers
• Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• BioMed Central (BMC)
• Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins (LWW)
• Thieme
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
(Science)
• BMJ Publishing Group
• World Scientific
• Wiley Blackwell
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Taylor & Francis
• Primary Care Respiratory Society UK (PCRJ)
Top 50 journals
| Rank | Journal Title | Publisher | Journal Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ca-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians | Wiley-Blackwell | Hematology (Q1); Oncology (Q1) |
| 2 | Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology | Nature Publishing Group | Cell Biology (Q1); Molecular Biology (Q1) |
| 3 | Quarterly Journal of Economics | Oxford University Press | Economics and Econometrics (Q1) |
| 4 | Cell | Cell Press | Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 5 | MMWR Recommendations and Reports | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Epidemiology (Q1); Health Information Management (Q1); Health (social science) (Q1); Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis (Q1); Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 6 | New England Journal of Medicine | Massachussetts Medical Society | Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 7 | Nature Medicine | Nature Publishing Group | Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous) (Q1); Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 8 | Nature Reviews Materials | Nature Publishing Group | Biomaterials (Q1); Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials (Q1); Energy (miscellaneous) (Q1); Materials Chemistry (Q1); Surfaces, Coatings and Films (Q1) |
| 9 | Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. | Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition; Software |
| 10 | Nature Reviews Genetics | Nature Publishing Group | Genetics (Q1); Genetics (clinical) (Q1); Molecular Biology (Q1) |
| 11 | National Vital Statistics Reports | Public Health Services, US Dept of Health and Human Services | Life-span and Life-course Studies (Q1) |
| 12 | Reviews of Modern Physics | American Physical Society | Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 13 | American Economic Review | American Economic Association | Economics and Econometrics (Q1) |
| 14 | Nature Biotechnology | Nature Publishing Group | Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (Q1); Bioengineering (Q1); Biomedical Engineering (Q1); Biotechnology (Q1); Molecular Medicine (Q1) |
| 15 | Chemical Reviews | American Chemical Society | Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 16 | Journal of Political Economy | University of Chicago | Economics and Econometrics (Q1) |
| 17 | Nature | Nature Publishing Group | Multidisciplinary (Q1) |
| 18 | Annual Review of Immunology | Annual Reviews Inc. | Immunology (Q1); Immunology and Allergy (Q1) |
| 19 | Administrative Science Quarterly | Johnson School at Cornell University | Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) (Q1); Public Administration (Q1); Sociology and Political Science (Q1) |
| 20 | Nature Reviews Immunology | Nature Publishing Group | Immunology (Q1); Immunology and Allergy (Q1); Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 21 | Nature Reviews Cancer | Nature Publishing Group | Cancer Research (Q1); Oncology (Q1) |
| 22 | Nature Energy | Springer Nature | Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials (Q1); Energy Engineering and Power Technology (Q1); Fuel Technology (Q1); Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment (Q1) |
| 23 | Nature Genetics | Nature Publishing Group | Genetics (Q1) |
| 24 | Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report | Department of Health and Human Services | Epidemiology (Q1); Health Information Management (Q1); Health (social science) (Q1); Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis (Q1); Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 25 | Journal of Finance | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd | Accounting (Q1); Economics and Econometrics (Q1); Finance (Q1) |
| 26 | Lancet, The | Elsevier Ltd. | Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 27 | Review of Economic Studies | Oxford University Press | Economics and Econometrics (Q1) |
| 28 | Academy of Management Annals | Academy of Management | Business and International Management (Q1); Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management (Q1) |
| 29 | Science | American Association for the Advancement of Science | History and Philosophy of Science (Q1); Multidisciplinary (Q1) |
| 30 | Chemical Society Reviews | Royal Society of Chemistry | Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 31 | Immunity | Cell Press | Immunology (Q1); Immunology and Allergy (Q1); Infectious Diseases (Q1) |
| 32 | Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition | IEEE Computer Society | Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition; Software |
| 33 | IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. | Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Q1) |
| 34 | Lancet Microbe, The | Elsevier Ltd. | Infectious Diseases (Q1); Microbiology (Q1); Microbiology (medical) (Q1); Virology (Q1) |
| 35 | Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning | Now Publishers Inc | Artificial Intelligence (Q1); Human-Computer Interaction (Q1); Software (Q1) |
| 36 | Econometrica | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd | Economics and Econometrics (Q1) |
| 37 | Annual Review of Biochemistry | Annual Reviews Inc. | Biochemistry (Q1) |
| 38 | Physiological Reviews | American Physiological Society | Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1); Molecular Biology (Q1); Physiology (Q1); Physiology (medical) (Q1) |
| 39 | World Psychiatry | Wiley-Blackwell | Psychiatry and Mental Health (Q1) |
| 40 | Nature Catalysis | Nature Publishing Group | Biochemistry (Q1); Bioengineering (Q1); Catalysis (Q1); Process Chemistry and Technology (Q1) |
| 41 | Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics | Annual Reviews Inc. | Astronomy and Astrophysics (Q1); Space and Planetary Science (Q1) |
| 42 | Living Reviews in Relativity | Springer International Publishing AG | Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 43 | Nature Materials | Nature Publishing Group | Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1); Condensed Matter Physics (Q1); Materials Science (miscellaneous) (Q1); Mechanical Engineering (Q1); Mechanics of Materials (Q1) |
| 44 | Nature Methods | Nature Publishing Group | Biochemistry (Q1); Biotechnology (Q1); Cell Biology (Q1); Molecular Biology (Q1) |
| 45 | Nature Neuroscience | Nature Publishing Group | Neuroscience (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 46 | Science immunology | American Association for the Advancement of Science | Immunology (Q1); Immunology and Allergy (Q1) |
| 47 | Nature Reviews Chemistry | Nature Publishing Group | Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) (Q1); Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1) |
| 48 | Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology | Nature Publishing Group | Oncology (Q1) |
| 49 | Lancet Oncology, The | Lancet Publishing Group | Oncology (Q1) |
| 50 | Nature Nanotechnology | Nature Publishing Group | Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics (Q1); Bioengineering (Q1); Biomedical Engineering (Q1); Condensed Matter Physics (Q1); Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Q1); Materials Science (miscellaneous) (Q1); Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Q1) |