Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics · 231 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

The top 40 of 231 Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by whether OpenAlex and Scimago agree on the subject and how central Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), leaving out journals both place in another discipline, drawn from a 17,500-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded; the FAQ below gives the exact ranking rule. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder (a free account starts with 25 welcome credits).

Data as of — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

  1. 1
    Nature Nanotechnology
    27.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Nature Photonics
    25.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    Light Science & Applications
    18.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Nature Physics
    11.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Physical Review X
    11.1 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    Physical Review Letters
    9.1 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    Optica
    8.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Optica Publishing Group
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Laser & Photonics Review
    7.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    SciPost Physics
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · SciPost.org
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    APL Photonics
    6.1 cites/paper · Q1 · AIP Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  11. 11
    Nanophotonics
    6.0 cites/paper · Q1 · De Gruyter
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    Communications Physics
    5.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  13. 13
    ACS Photonics
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  14. 14
    The Journal of Chemical Physics
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · American Institute of Physics
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    Physical Review Research
    4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  16. 16
    Chinese Physics Letters
    4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Physics
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  17. 17
    Physical Review Applied
    4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  18. 18
    Frontiers of Physics
    3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Higher Education Press
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  19. 19
    Optics Letters
    3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Optica Publishing Group
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  20. 20
    New Journal of Physics
    3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  21. 21
    Physical Review A
    3.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  22. 22
    Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables
    2.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  23. 23
    Foundations of Physics
    2.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  24. 24
    Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
    5.6 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  25. 25
    Vacuum
    4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  26. 26
    Physical review. B.
    4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  27. 27
    Advanced Quantum Technologies
    3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Journal of Physics D Applied Physics
    2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Physics
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    Progress in Surface Science
    2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  30. 30
    Journal of Computational Chemistry
    2.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    Reviews of Modern Physics
    35.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Physics Reports
    16.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    Reports on Progress in Physics
    9.8 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    Computer Physics Communications
    3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    Journal of Plasma Physics
    3.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  36. 36
    The European Physical Journal A
    2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
    3.6 cites/paper · Q2 · Royal Society of Chemistry
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  38. 38
    Physica E Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures
    3.3 cites/paper · Q2 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  39. 39
    Journal of Applied Physics
    3.2 cites/paper · Q2 · American Institute of Physics
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  40. 40
    Physics Letters A
    3.0 cites/paper · Q2 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed

“Cites/paper” is the OpenAlex 2-year citation rate — a transparent signal, not a licensed Impact Factor. Many regional and open-access journals are strong but aren’t covered by Scimago, so they show “no Scimago quartile”; that’s a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

Part of best journals for Physics.

Best journals in other disciplines

Frequently asked

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics journals include Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Light Science & Applications, Nature Physics, Physical Review X. The top 40 of 231 ranked venues are listed on this page; 36 are Scimago Q1 and 4 Q2. Each shows its open-access status and indexing, and predatory venues are excluded. For a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

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