What are the best journals for Cognitive Neuroscience?

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Cognitive Neuroscience journals include Nature Neuroscience, Nature Human Behaviour, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Cognitive Psychology, Learning and Motivation. The top 40 of 266 ranked venues are listed on this page; all 40 are Scimago Q1. 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).

How were these Cognitive Neuroscience journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Cognitive Neuroscience come before those that list it second or third, and ties go to OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window. A venue whose main subfield is unrelated to Cognitive Neuroscience — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Cognitive Neuroscience — is listed after all the others. Where cites/paper decides, a journal with fewer than 30 papers in OpenAlex over the four most recent publication years is listed after those with more: a two-year average over so few papers can rest on a single article (1 of the 266 journals ranked here is below that floor; it is not among the 40 shown). Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded.

Why don't all Cognitive Neuroscience journals show a quartile?

Scimago doesn't cover every journal — many strong regional and open-access venues are absent from it. We show "no Scimago quartile" for those rather than hide them; it's a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

How do I find the best journal for my specific Cognitive Neuroscience paper?

Paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder — it returns a shortlist matched to your paper's topic from the same index, with acceptance-fit signals, open-access status, and predatory flags. A free account starts with 25 welcome credits; each run costs 15.

Cognitive Neuroscience · 266 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Cognitive Neuroscience

The top 40 of 266 Cognitive Neuroscience journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by how central Cognitive Neuroscience is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), 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 18 October 2026 — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals

1
Nature Neuroscience
17.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Nature Human Behaviour
14.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
10.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
Cognitive Psychology
8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Learning and Motivation
8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
Current Directions in Psychological Science
7.0 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Autism
6.6 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
Translational Psychiatry
6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Psychological Science
6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
6.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
6.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
Psychological Review
5.7 cites/paper · Q1 · American Psychological Association
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
International Journal of Neural Systems
5.6 cites/paper · Q1 · World Scientific
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
5.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Philosophy & Technology
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature (Netherlands)
ScopusPubMed
17
Biomedical Signal Processing and Control
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Human Brain Mapping
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Brain Communications
4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Behavior Research Methods
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
Journal of Neural Engineering
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
NeuroImage
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Cerebral Cortex
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems
3.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
Physics of Life Reviews
3.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
NeuroImage Clinical
3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
Frontiers in Psychology
3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Psychophysiology
3.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
3.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · American Psychological Association
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
Autism Research
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Acta Psychologica
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
eNeuro
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Society for Neuroscience
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · The MIT Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · University of Oxford
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Journal of Memory and Language
3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
3.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
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.