What are the best journals for Medicine?

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Medicine journals include CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Journal of Hematology & Oncology, Nature Reviews Microbiology, Cancer Cell. The top 40 of 5,793 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 Medicine journals ranked?

Journals are listed when both OpenAlex and Scimago file them under Medicine, plus any documented corrections; a journal Scimago does not cover is listed on OpenAlex's word alone. 398 journals OpenAlex files under Medicine are left out because Scimago files them only under other fields. They are ranked by Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then journals without one); within a quartile, journals Scimago places in Medicine come before those it does not cover, and then OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window decides. 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 (18 of the 5,793 journals ranked here are below that floor; none of them is 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 Medicine 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 Medicine 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.

Medicine · 5,793 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Medicine

The top 40 of 5,793 Medicine journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), leaving out journals Scimago files only under other fields, 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 15 November 2026 — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals

1
CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
227.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Nature Reviews Disease Primers
39.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Journal of Hematology & Oncology
35.1 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
Nature Reviews Microbiology
35.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Cancer Cell
34.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
Nature Medicine
32.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
New England Journal of Medicine
32.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Massachusetts Medical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Molecular Cancer
29.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
28.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Pharmacological Reviews
27.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
Nature reviews. Cancer
26.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Immunity
25.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
Nature reviews. Immunology
25.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Physiological Reviews
24.1 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physiological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Cellular and Molecular Immunology
22.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Endocrine Reviews
21.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
The Lancet
21.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
19.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Molecular Neurodegeneration
18.4 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
World Psychiatry
18.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Nature Reviews Cardiology
18.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology
18.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
Nature Metabolism
18.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Clinical Microbiology Reviews
18.1 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society for Microbiology
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Nature Reviews Nephrology
17.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
Nature Cancer
17.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
Nature Microbiology
17.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
Cardiovascular Diabetology
17.4 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
The Lancet Public Health
17.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Gut Microbes
17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Landes Bioscience
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Nature Aging
17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
Seminars in Immunopathology
16.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
The Lancet Neurology
16.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
The Lancet Digital Health
16.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology
16.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
Drug Resistance Updates
16.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
Science Immunology
16.1 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews
16.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Nature Reviews Neurology
15.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Science Translational Medicine
15.9 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
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.