What are the best journals for Control and Systems Engineering?

From a 17,782-venue index, the highest-ranked Control and Systems Engineering journals include Annual Reviews in Control, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, The International Journal of Robotics Research, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. The top 40 of 177 ranked venues are listed on this page; 33 are Scimago Q1 and 7 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).

How were these Control and Systems Engineering journals ranked?

Journals are placed by two independent classifications, OpenAlex's and Scimago's, plus any documented corrections. A journal both place under Control and Systems Engineering ranks ahead, within its Scimago quartile, of one only OpenAlex places there — because Scimago does not cover it, files it as Multidisciplinary, or files it under a neighbouring subject or only under a broad “(miscellaneous)” category (which counts as agreement when Control and Systems Engineering is the journal's main OpenAlex subfield). 3 journals OpenAlex files under Control and Systems Engineering are left out because OpenAlex's main field for them and Scimago's categories both place them in another discipline. By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, journals both sources place under Control and Systems Engineering come first, then venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Control and Systems Engineering 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 Control and Systems Engineering — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Control and Systems Engineering — is listed after all the others. Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded.

Why don't all Control and Systems Engineering 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 Control and Systems Engineering 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.

Control and Systems Engineering · 177 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Control and Systems Engineering

The top 40 of 177 Control and Systems Engineering journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by whether OpenAlex and Scimago agree on the subject and how central Control and Systems Engineering is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), leaving out journals both place in another discipline, drawn from a 17,782-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).

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals

1
Annual Reviews in Control
11.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica
8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of Science
3
The International Journal of Robotics Research
7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
6.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Systems
5.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
5.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
ISA Transactions
4.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Automatica
4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
3.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Control Engineering Practice
3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of Science
15
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
International Journal of Systems Science
3.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Journal of the Franklin Institute
3.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Robotica
3.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Journal of Process Control
2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Systems & Control Letters
2.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
Mechatronics
2.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control
2.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
European Journal of Control
2.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Nonlinear Analysis Hybrid Systems
1.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of Science
26
IEEE Control Systems Letters
1.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery
12.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery
Open AccessScopus
28
Computers & Chemical Engineering
4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Mechanism and Machine Theory
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Robotics
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Multibody System Dynamics
2.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of Science
32
SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization
2.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
2.3 cites/paper · Q1 · ASM International
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing
3.2 cites/paper · Q2 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Optimal Control Applications and Methods
3.0 cites/paper · Q2 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
International Journal of Fuzzy Systems
2.9 cites/paper · Q2 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of Science
37
International Journal of Control Automation and Systems
2.8 cites/paper · Q2 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Actuators
2.4 cites/paper · Q2 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
IET Control Theory and Applications
2.2 cites/paper · Q2 · Institution of Engineering and Technology
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
40
International Journal of Dynamics and Control
2.2 cites/paper · Q2 · 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.