What is a high impact journal?

A high impact journal is generally defined as one with an impact factor (IF) of 10 or above, placing it in the top quartile (Q1) of its subject category. High impact journals attract more citations per paper, broader readership, and stricter peer review.

What is the highest impact factor journal?

As of 2026, CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians carries the highest impact factor in our database at 226.20.

Are all Q1 journals high impact?

Q1 means the journal sits in the top 25% of its subject category by impact factor. Most Q1 journals are considered high impact, but the threshold varies by field — a Q1 medical journal typically has IF ≥ 5, while a Q1 mathematics journal may sit below IF 3.

High Impact Journals (2026)

Looking for a high impact journal for your manuscript? Below are 366 Q1 journals with current impact factors of 10 or above — ranked across medicine, biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and physics. Click any title to see the full impact factor history, APC, acceptance rate, and indexing status.

Top 20 High Impact Journals Worldwide

All Q1 quartile

#	Journal	Publisher	Impact Factor	Details
1	CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians	Wiley	226.20	View »
2	The Lancet	Elsevier BV	202.70	View »
3	New England Journal of Medicine	Massachusetts Medical Society	176.00	View »
4	AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY	Academic Journals	162.25	View »
5	BMJ	BMJ	105.70	View »
6	BMJ	—	105.70	View »
7	BMJ	—	105.70	View »
8	BMJ	—	105.70	View »
9	Nature Medicine	Springer Nature	82.90	View »
10	Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 2	The Royal Society of Chemistry	82.00	View »
11	Nature	Nature Portfolio	69.50	View »
12	Cell	Elsevier	66.80	View »
13	Journal of the Chemical Society Faraday Transactions 1 Physical Chemistry in Condensed Phases	The Royal Society of Chemistry	66.00	View »
14	Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society	The Royal Society of Chemistry	65.00	View »
15	Human Nature	Springer Nature	64.80	View »
16	Nature Astronomy	Springer Nature	64.80	View »
17	Nature Biomedical Engineering	Springer Nature	64.80	View »
18	Nature Biotechnology	Springer Nature	64.80	View »
19	Nature Catalysis	Springer Nature	64.80	View »
20	Nature Chemical Biology	Springer Nature	64.80	View »

High Impact Journals by Field

High Impact Journals in Medicine

The Lancet 202.7
New England Journal of Medicine 176.0
BMJ 105.7
Journal of Current Oncology and Medical Sciences 56.9
eLife 8.7

High Impact Journals in Biology

eLife 8.7

High Impact Journals in Chemistry

High Impact Journals in Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine … 24.3

High Impact Journals in Computer Science

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine … 24.3

High Impact Journals in Physics

Full High Impact Journal List

All journals with an impact factor of 10 or higher in our 2026 database, sorted by IF.

Journal	Publisher	Impact Factor	APC	Details
CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians	Wiley	226.20	—	View »
The Lancet	Elsevier BV	202.70	$6,500.00	View »
New England Journal of Medicine	Massachusetts Medical Society	176.00	—	View »
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY	Academic Journals	162.25	—	View »
BMJ	—	105.70	—	View »
BMJ	BMJ	105.70	$4,250.00	View »
BMJ	—	105.70	—	View »
BMJ	—	105.70	—	View »
Nature Medicine	Springer Nature	82.90	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 2	The Royal Society of Chemistry	82.00	—	View »
Nature	Nature Portfolio	69.50	$11,690.00	View »
Cell	Elsevier	66.80	$9,900.00	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society Faraday Transactions 1 Physical Chemistry in Condensed Phases	The Royal Society of Chemistry	66.00	—	View »
Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society	The Royal Society of Chemistry	65.00	—	View »
Human Nature	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Astronomy	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Biomedical Engineering	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Biotechnology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Catalysis	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Chemical Biology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Chemistry	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Ecology & Evolution	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Electronics	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Energy	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Genetics	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Human Behaviour	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Immunology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Machine Intelligence	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Materials	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Metabolism	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Methods	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Microbiology	—	64.80	—	View »
Nature Nanotechnology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Neuroscience	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature New Biology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Photonics	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Physics	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Plants	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Protocols	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reports Climate Change	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Cardiology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Disease Primers	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Endocrinology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Genetics	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Materials	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Microbiology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Nephrology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »

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What counts as a high impact journal?

A high impact journal is generally one with a Journal Citation Reports (JCR) impact factor of 10 or above — placing it in the Q1 quartile of its subject category. The cutoff varies by field: in clinical medicine the bar is far higher than in pure mathematics. Use the per-field tables above to benchmark within your discipline.

Find your venue

Not sure which high impact journal fits your manuscript? Paste your abstract into the AI Journal Suggester or browse our full Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 rankings.