Publishing in a Q1 journal is a major achievement for researchers. However, many top-ranked journals charge high Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Fortunately, several Q1 journals allow authors to publish without paying publication fees.
In this blog post, we provide a list of free-to-publish Q1 journals across different subject areas. These journals are indexed in leading databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ, and PubMed.
All the listed journals are Open Access.
About Q1 Journals
Each subject category of journals is divided into four quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4.
Q1 (Quartile 1) journals are the top 25% of journals within a particular subject category based on citation performance. They are generally considered the most prestigious journals.
See also: Q1 Journals with Fast Peer Review: High-Impact Journals that Publish Quickly
List of Free to Publish Q1 Journals
Below is a curated list of Q1 journals that do not require publication fees.
| Journal Title | ISSN | Publication Broad Area | Publisher | Quartile | Impact Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living Reviews in Relativity | 14338351, 23673613 | Physics and Astronomy | Springer International Publishing AG | Q1 | 64.6 |
| Living Reviews in Solar Physics | 16144961, 23673648 | Earth and Planetary Sciences; Physics and Astronomy | Springer International Publishing AG | Q1 | 29.4 |
| International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education | 23659440 | Computer Science; Social Sciences | Springer Netherlands | Q1 | 38.7 |
| Photonics Insights | 27911748 | Engineering | SPIE | Q1 | 0.0 |
| Military Medical Research | 20549369, 20957467 | Medicine | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 29.0 |
| Matter | 25902393, 25902385 | Materials Science | Cell Press | Q1 | 15.7 |
| Organization Theory | 26317877 | Business, Management and Accounting | SAGE Publications Ltd | Q1 | 7.0 |
| International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing | 26317990, 26318644 | Engineering | IOP Publishing Ltd. | Q1 | 25.1 |
| Nano Research Energy | 27910091, 27908119 | Chemistry; Energy; Materials Science | Tsinghua University Press | Q1 | 22.6 |
| Journal of Sport and Health Science | 22132961, 20952546 | Health Professions; Medicine | Elsevier B.V. | Q1 | 13.1 |
| Journal of the European Mathematical Society | 14359855, 14359863 | Mathematics | European Mathematical Society Publishing House | Q1 | 3.1 |
| Journal of Statistical Software | 15487660 | Computer Science; Decision Sciences; Mathematics | University of California at Los Angeles | Q1 | 14.3 |
| Journal of Biomedical Science | 10217770, 14230127 | Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Medicine | BioMed Central Ltd | Q1 | 14.5 |
| Opto-Electronic Science | 20970382 | Physics and Astronomy | Q1 | 26.9 | |
| Energy Material Advances | 26927640 | Energy; Materials Science | American Association for the Advancement of Science | Q1 | 17.4 |
| Visual Intelligence | 27319008, 20973330 | Computer Science | Springer | Q1 | NA |
| Satellite Navigation | 26629291, 26621363 | Computer Science; Engineering | Springer International Publishing | Q1 | 12.4 |
| International Journal of Mining Science and Technology | 20952686 | Earth and Planetary Sciences; Energy | China University of Mining and Technology | Q1 | 15.9 |
| Computational Visual Media | 20960662, 20960433 | Computer Science | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. | Q1 | 8.3 |
| Energy Materials and Devices | 30053064, 30053315 | Engineering; Materials Science | Tsinghua University Press | Q1 | 9.9 |
| Eurosurveillance | 15607917, 1025496X | Immunology and Microbiology; Medicine | European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) | Q1 | 8.3 |
| Environmental Health Perspectives | 15529924, 00916765 | Environmental Science; Medicine | Public Health Services, US Dept of Health and Human Services | Q1 | 10.9 |
| Journal of Stroke | 22876391, 22876405 | Medicine | Korean Stroke Society | Q1 | 11.0 |
| Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication | 10836101 | Social Sciences | Oxford University Press | Q1 | 7.4 |
| ACS Central Science | 23747951, 23747943 | Chemical Engineering; Chemistry | American Chemical Society | Q1 | 11.1 |
| Petroleum Exploration and Development | 20964803, 18763804 | Earth and Planetary Sciences; Energy | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 10.7 |
| CCS Chemistry | 20965745 | Chemistry | Chinese Chemical Society | Q1 | 9.2 |
| Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering | 25890417, 16747755 | Earth and Planetary Sciences | Chinese Academy of Sciences | Q1 | 10.8 |
| Journal of Road Engineering | 20970498, 27730077 | Engineering | KeAi Publishing Communications Ltd. | Q1 | 12.8 |
| eGastroenterology | 29767296, 27660125 | Medicine | BMJ Publishing Group | Q1 | 10.5 |
| Campbell Systematic Reviews | 18911803 | Social Sciences | John Wiley & Sons Inc. | Q1 | 3.8 |
| Nano Materials Science | 20966482, 25899651 | Chemical Engineering; Engineering; Materials Science | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 20.5 |
| Materials Futures | 27525724 | Materials Science | Institute of Physics | Q1 | 12.3 |
| CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems | 20960042 | Energy; Engineering; Materials Science | China Electric Power Research Institute | Q1 | 5.6 |
| Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching | 20835205, 20841965 | Social Sciences | Adam Mickiewicz University | Q1 | 5.1 |
| Advanced Industrial and Engineering Polymer Research | 25425048 | Chemical Engineering; Engineering; Materials Science | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 18.4 |
| Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences | 18180876, 2221285X | Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 12.6 |
| Carbon Neutrality | 27313948, 27888614 | Economics, Econometrics and Finance; Energy; Environmental Science | Springer | Q1 | 11.2 |
| Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy | 21965420, 21965625 | Energy | State Grid Electric Power Research Institute Nanjing Branch | Q1 | 6.2 |
| Nexus | 29501601 | Engineering; Environmental Science | Cell Press | Q1 | NA |
| Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics | 2307387X | Computer Science; Social Sciences | MIT Press | Q1 | 11.7 |
| Light: Advanced Manufacturing | 26899620, 28314093 | Engineering; Materials Science; Physics and Astronomy | Light Publishing Group | Q1 | 10.2 |
| Advances in Combinatorics | 25175599 | Mathematics | Alliance of Diamond OA Journals | Q1 | NA |
| Emerging Infectious Diseases | 10806040, 10806059 | Medicine | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Q1 | 7.9 |
| Chemical Science | 20416520, 20416539 | Chemistry | Royal Society of Chemistry | Q1 | 8.1 |
| Communications in Transportation Research | 27724247 | Decision Sciences; Engineering; Social Sciences | Tsinghua University Press | Q1 | 12.7 |
| SciPost Physics Lecture Notes | 25901990 | Physics and Astronomy | SciPost Foundation | Q1 | NA |
| Journal of Lipid and Atherosclerosis | 22872892, 22882561 | Medicine | Korean Society of Lipid and Atherosclerosis | Q1 | NA |
| Computational Linguistics | 08912017, 15309312 | Computer Science; Social Sciences | MIT Press | Q1 | 13.4 |
| Energy and Built Environment | 26661233 | Energy; Engineering; Social Sciences | KeAi Communications Co. | Q1 | 10.4 |
| Preventing Chronic Disease | 21665435, 15451151 | Medicine | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Q1 | 5.6 |
| Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici | 00102571, 14208946 | Mathematics | European Mathematical Society Publishing House | Q1 | 2.1 |
| Psychoradiology | 26344416 | Computer Science; Medicine; Neuroscience; Psychology | Oxford University Press | Q1 | 7.4 |
| Japanese Dental Science Review | 18827616, 22136851 | Dentistry | Elsevier Ltd | Q1 | 8.1 |
| Australasian Journal of Educational Technology | 14493098, 14495554 | Social Sciences | Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) | Q1 | 6.3 |
| Life Medicine | 27551733 | Arts and Humanities; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Mathematics; Social Sciences | Oxford University Press | Q1 | 7.7 |
| Stress Biology | 27310450 | Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Immunology and Microbiology | Springer | Q1 | 6.4 |
| Geochemical Perspectives Letters | 2410339X, 24103403 | Earth and Planetary Sciences; Environmental Science | European Association of Geochemistry | Q1 | 4.3 |
| Journal of Liver Cancer | 22888128, 23835001 | Medicine | Q1 | NA | |
| Journal of Health Monitoring | 25112708 | Medicine | Robert Koch Institute | Q1 | NA |