What are the best journals for Surgery?

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Surgery journals include Gut, Journal of Orthopaedic Translation, Current Atherosclerosis Reports, World Journal of Emergency Surgery, JAMA Surgery. The top 40 of 944 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 Surgery journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Surgery 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 Surgery — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Surgery — 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 944 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 Surgery 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 Surgery 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.

Surgery · 944 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Surgery

The top 40 of 944 Surgery journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by how central Surgery 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
Gut
11.1 cites/paper · Q1 · BMJ
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Journal of Orthopaedic Translation
7.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Current Atherosclerosis Reports
7.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
World Journal of Emergency Surgery
6.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
JAMA Surgery
6.4 cites/paper · Q1 · American Medical Association
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
Knee Surgery and Related Research
6.1 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine
6.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
5.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
The American Journal of Sports Medicine
5.5 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Annals of Surgery
5.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy
5.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
United European Gastroenterology Journal
5.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
Neurospine
5.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Korean Spinal Neurosurgery Society
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
The Bone & Joint Journal
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Current Opinion in Lipidology
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Journal of Molecular Medicine
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physical Therapy Association
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Helicobacter
4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Drug Design Development and Therapy
4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Dove Medical Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Current Gastroenterology Reports
4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
World Journal of Gastroenterology
4.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Baishideng Publishing Group
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
BJS Open
4.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Journal of Orthopaedics and Traumatology
4.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Journal of Gastroenterology
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Medical Association
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
European Journal of Anaesthesiology
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
Journal of Clinical Anesthesia
3.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Transplant International
3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Cell Transplantation
3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Bone and Joint Research
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
Pain Physician
3.5 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
Aesthetic Surgery Journal
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · BMJ
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Best Practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterology
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
Esophagus
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
Acta Orthopaedica
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
JBJS Reviews
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Bone & Joint Open
3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Transplantation Reviews
3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · 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.