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
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences	National Academy of Sciences	54.05	$3,500.00	View »
Science Advances	American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)	54.05	—	View »
Chemical Reviews	American Chemical Society	44.79	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society D Chemical Communications	The Royal Society of Chemistry	34.00	—	View »
Chemical Society Reviews	The Royal Society of Chemistry	31.04	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society Faraday Transactions 2 Molecular and Chemical Physics	The Royal Society of Chemistry	31.00	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society Transactions	The Royal Society of Chemistry	30.00	—	View »
Faraday Symposia of the Chemical Society	—	28.00	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 1	The Royal Society of Chemistry	28.00	—	View »
Journal of Materials Chemistry	The Royal Society of Chemistry	26.00	—	View »
Reviews of Modern Physics	American Physical Society	24.42	—	View »
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence	IEEE	24.30	$2,995.00	View »
IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers	24.17	—	View »
Psychological Bulletin	American Psychological Association	23.00	$4,000.00	View »
Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja	—	22.48	—	View »
Environmental Chemistry Letters	Springer Nature	21.84	—	View »
African Journal of Agricultural Research	Academic Journals	21.69	—	View »
Transactions of the Faraday Society	Royal Society of Chemistry	21.00	—	View »
Immunity	Cell Press	19.59	$9,080.00	View »
Advanced Materials	—	19.13	—	View »
Nature Communications	Nature Portfolio	17.70	$6,290.00	View »
Angewandte Chemie	Wiley	16.60	—	View »
Journal of the American Chemical Society	American Chemical Society	16.30	$5,000.00	View »
Coordination Chemistry Reviews	Elsevier	16.23	—	View »
Advanced Energy Materials	Wiley	16.22	$5,250.00	View »
Nano Energy	Elsevier BV	16.07	$4,910.00	View »
Accounts of Chemical Research	American Chemical Society	16.03	—	View »
Journal of the Chemical Society A Inorganic Physical Theoretical	The Royal Society of Chemistry	16.00	—	View »
The Journal of Negro Education	Howard University	16.00	—	View »
Journal of Material Science and Technology	Elsevier BV	15.69	$3,000.00	View »
ACM Computing Surveys	Association for Computing Machinery	15.19	—	View »
International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture	Elsevier BV	14.53	$4,840.00	View »
African Journal of Microbiology Research	Academic Journals	14.45	—	View »
The Quarterly Journal of Economics	Oxford University Press	14.20	$3,500.00	View »
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews	Elsevier BV	14.16	$4,830.00	View »
Quarterly Reviews Chemical Society	The Royal Society of Chemistry	14.00	—	View »
International Journal of Plasticity	Elsevier BV	13.95	$3,900.00	View »
Journal of Energy Chemistry	Elsevier BV	13.90	$2,750.00	View »
ACS Nano	American Chemical Society	13.84	—	View »
Technological Forecasting and Social Change	Elsevier BV	13.61	$2,750.00	View »
Nucleic Acids Research	Oxford University Press	13.46	—	View »
Physics Reports	Elsevier	13.24	—	View »
Applied Catalysis B: Environmental	Elsevier	13.21	—	View »
Advanced Functional Materials	Wiley	13.04	—	View »
British Journal of Educational Technology	Wiley	13.03	$3,860.00	View »
CHINESE JOURNAL OF CATALYSIS (CHINESE VERSION)	Elsevier BV	12.99	—	View »
Angewandte Chemie International Edition	Wiley	12.97	—	View »
American Economic Review	American Economic Association	12.91	—	View »
International Journal of Oncology	Spandidos Publishing	12.89	—	View »
International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT)	—	12.69	—	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.