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
Nature Reviews Neurology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Reviews Rheumatology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature Structural Biology	—	64.80	—	View »
Nature Sustainability	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature reviews. Cancer	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature reviews. Immunology	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature reviews. Neuroscience	Springer Nature	64.80	—	View »
Nature-Nurture Journal of Psychology	Nature-Nurture Publisher (NNP)	64.80	$100.00	View »
Aging Cell	Wiley	64.50	—	View »
American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology	American Physiological Society	64.50	—	View »
American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology	American Thoracic Society	64.50	—	View »
Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology	Annual Reviews	64.50	—	View »
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Cell Research	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cancer Cell	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cancer Cell International	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell Biology International	Wiley	64.50	—	View »
Cell Calcium	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cell Communication and Signaling	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell Cycle	Informa	64.50	—	View »
Cell Death and Differentiation	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell Death and Disease	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell Host & Microbe	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cell Metabolism	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cell Proliferation	Wiley	64.50	—	View »
Cell Reports	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cell Research	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell Systems	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cell Transplantation	SAGE	64.50	—	View »
Cell and Tissue Research	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Cell stem cell	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences	Springer	64.50	$4,390.00	View »
Current Opinion in Cell Biology	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
DNA and Cell Biology	Mary Ann Liebert	64.50	—	View »
Developmental Cell	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Eukaryotic Cell	American Society for Microbiology	64.50	—	View »
Experimental Cell Research	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology	Frontiers Media SA	64.50	—	View »
Histochemistry and Cell Biology	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Immunology and Cell Biology	Wiley	64.50	—	View »
Journal of Cell Science	The Company of Biologists	64.50	—	View »
Microbial Cell Factories	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Molecular Biology of the Cell	American Society for Cell Biology	64.50	—	View »
Molecular Cell	Elsevier	64.50	—	View »
Molecular and Cellular Biology	Taylor & Francis	64.50	—	View »
Nature Cell Biology	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Plant Cell & Environment	Wiley	64.50	—	View »
Plant Cell Reports	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »
Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)	Springer Nature	64.50	—	View »

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.