What are the best journals for Physics?

From an 88,000-venue index, the highest-ranked Physics journals (by Scimago quartile then OpenAlex cites/paper) include Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Nature Materials, Nature. Predatory venues are excluded. The full ranked list with open-access and indexing details is on this page; for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the free Journal Recommender.

How were these Physics journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4), then by OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window. Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor. We exclude journals flagged as predatory.

Why don't all Physics 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 Physics paper?

Paste your title and abstract into the free Journal Recommender — it returns a shortlist matched to your paper's topic from the same index, with acceptance-fit signals, open-access status, and predatory flags. No signup required.

Physics · 522 journals indexed

Best journals for Physics

The top Physics journals ranked by Scimago quartile, then cites/paper (OpenAlex, 2-year window), drawn from an 88,000-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the free Journal Finder.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals Highest-impact journals

1
Reviews of Modern Physics
27.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Nature Nanotechnology
22.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Nature Photonics
21.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
Nature Materials
19.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Nature
15.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
Reviews of Geophysics
14.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
Light Science & Applications
14.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Physics Reports
13.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
New Astronomy Reviews
11.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of Science
10
Nature Physics
10.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
PRX Quantum
9.9 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Reports on Progress in Physics
8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
ScopusWeb of Science
13
Physical Review X
8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics
8.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Space Science Reviews
7.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
Physical Review Letters
7.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Communications Materials
6.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Optica
6.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Optica Publishing Group
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Nature Astronomy
6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Physics of the Dark Universe
6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of Science
22
npj Quantum Information
6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
SciPost Physics
5.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SciPost.org
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Laser & Photonics Review
5.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Science China Physics Mechanics and Astronomy
5.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
Nonlinear Dynamics
5.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
Nanophotonics
5.2 cites/paper · Q1 · De Gruyter
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Association for Computing Machinery
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Chaos Solitons & Fractals
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Physical review. D.
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Institute of Physics
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
33
APL Photonics
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · AIP Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
Communications Physics
4.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
The Astrophysical Journal
4.7 cites/paper · Q1 · IOP Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters
4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
ScopusPubMed
37
ACS Photonics
4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Materials Science and Engineering B
4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
APL Materials
4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · American Institute of Physics
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
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.

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