How to select a neurosurgical journal
Start with the paper itself: operation or intervention, pathology, study design, and the readers who should act on the result. A broad clinical cohort and a procedure-centered technical paper can need different journals even when they come from the same service.
Check subspecialty fit explicitly across cranial and skull base surgery, neuro-oncology, vascular/endovascular care, spine and peripheral nerve surgery, functional and epilepsy surgery, and pediatric neurosurgery.
Treat the three groups as an editorial fit shortlist, not a ranking or prediction of acceptance. Confirm the live aims, article type, and author instructions before submitting.
Manuscript type matrix
Start with the manuscript's main contribution, then compare audience and article-type fit before using journal metrics.
| Manuscript type | Prioritize | Avoid when |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical cohorts and outcomes | Prioritize: A journal whose clinical readership manages the same pathology, operation, and outcomes. | Avoid when: The cohort is small, descriptive, or lacks a question that matters beyond one local workflow. |
| Operative and technical studies | Prioritize: Procedure-centered journals that support the relevant technical format, anatomy, device, or video. | Avoid when: The report shows a technique without evidence of safety, reproducibility, educational value, or clinical relevance. |
| Trials and comparative effectiveness | Prioritize: Journals reaching clinicians who can use the comparison, with an article type suited to the design and reporting standard. | Avoid when: The comparator, power, registration, or outcome definitions do not support the claimed practice implication. |
| Neuro-oncology and translational studies | Prioritize: The audience closest to the paper's main contribution: operative neuro-oncology, clinical outcomes, or translational mechanism. | Avoid when: The neurosurgical relevance is secondary to laboratory biology or the translational bridge is not demonstrated. |
| Spine and peripheral nerve studies | Prioritize: A spine or neurosurgical audience aligned with the anatomy, intervention, and patient-centered outcome. | Avoid when: Spine or peripheral nerve is incidental rather than the paper's central clinical audience. |
| Vascular and endovascular studies | Prioritize: Readers who manage the same lesion and can evaluate the operative, endovascular, imaging, and outcome evidence together. | Avoid when: The paper does not make clear whether its main audience is neurosurgical, neurointerventional, or neurological. |
| Functional neurosurgery and epilepsy | Prioritize: Specialist readership for targeting, neuromodulation, epilepsy surgery, radiosurgery, and functional outcomes. | Avoid when: The intervention or outcome is too general for a focused functional or stereotactic audience. |
| Pediatric and congenital neurosurgery | Prioritize: A pediatric neurosurgical audience when age, development, congenital anatomy, and family-centered outcomes shape the study. | Avoid when: Children are only a subgroup and the central conclusions are not specifically pediatric. |
Reach journals
Consider these when the study has a strong evidence base, clear novelty, and relevance to a major field-wide or subspecialty neurosurgical audience.
NEUROSURGERY
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 3.8
- JCR quartile
- Q1
- 2025 publication volume
- 1,298
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 100 days
- n=100 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • High-novelty operative and clinical studies
- • Field-wide outcomes and comparative research
- • Translational work with clear neurosurgical relevance
Why it may fit
Broad, high-novelty operative, clinical, and translational neurosurgery with field-wide relevance.
Caution
Highly selective; confirm the article category and evidence threshold.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSURGERY
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 3.8
- JCR quartile
- Q1
- 2025 publication volume
- 344
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 117 days
- n=97 · 97% coverage
Suitable for
- • Cranial and skull base surgery
- • Vascular, functional, and neuro-oncology studies
- • Major clinical cohorts and outcomes research
Why it may fit
Major cranial, vascular, functional, oncologic, and outcomes studies for neurosurgeons.
Caution
Match the paper to the correct JNS family title before submission.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSURGERY-SPINE
Publisher not available
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 3.9
- JCR quartile
- Q1
- 2025 publication volume
- 190
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 119 days
- n=97 · 97% coverage
Suitable for
- • Spine surgery and instrumentation
- • Deformity and spinal tumor studies
- • Patient-centered spine outcomes
Why it may fit
Spine surgery, instrumentation, deformity, tumors, and patient-centered spine outcomes.
Caution
Use only when spine is the paper's primary clinical audience.
Neurosurgical Focus
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 3.3
- JCR quartile
- Q1
- 2025 publication volume
- 183
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 75 days
- n=92 · 92% coverage
Suitable for
- • Current issue-specific neurosurgical topics
- • Technical studies matched to a current topic
- • Focused reviews and evidence syntheses
Why it may fit
Topical collections, techniques, and focused evidence syntheses in neurosurgery.
Caution
Confirm the current issue topic and accepted article format.
Strong-match journals
These titles can be the strongest destination when their international, technical, pediatric, or functional readership matches the manuscript more precisely than a broader reach journal.
World Neurosurgery
Elsevier BV
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 2.0
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 1,157
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 21 days
- n=100 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • International clinical cohorts and outcomes
- • Operative and technical neurosurgery
- • Education, systems, and global neurosurgical care
Why it may fit
Broad international clinical, operative, technical, and health-systems neurosurgery.
Caution
Breadth is not an acceptance-rate signal; verify the relevant section.
Operative Neurosurgery
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 1.6
- JCR quartile
- Q3
- 2025 publication volume
- 407
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 90 days
- n=100 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • Operative anatomy and surgical approaches
- • Techniques, devices, instrumentation, and technology
- • Procedure-centered clinical evidence and videos
Why it may fit
Surgical anatomy, techniques, devices, videos, and procedure-centered clinical evidence.
Caution
Technical novelty must be paired with clear clinical or educational value.
Journal of Neurosurgery-Pediatrics
Publisher not available
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 2.2
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 168
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 135.5 days
- n=94 · 94% coverage
Suitable for
- • Hydrocephalus and congenital neurosurgery
- • Pediatric tumors and trauma
- • Pediatric surgical outcomes
Why it may fit
Hydrocephalus, congenital disease, pediatric tumors, trauma, and pediatric outcomes.
Caution
The central population and implications must be pediatric.
STEREOTACTIC AND FUNCTIONAL NEUROSURGERY
Karger Publishers
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 2.1
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 72
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 96.5 days
- n=100 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • Neuromodulation and deep-brain stimulation
- • Epilepsy surgery and stereotactic targeting
- • Radiosurgery and functional procedures
Why it may fit
Neuromodulation, epilepsy surgery, radiosurgery, targeting, and functional procedures.
Caution
Focused audience; general neurosurgical cohorts may fit elsewhere.
Broader-scope journals
These journals offer broader clinical, regional, or open-access scope when the audience and article type fit. Broader scope does not mean easy acceptance; evidence quality and editorial fit still matter.
World Neurosurgery-X
Elsevier BV
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 2.5
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 135
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 273 days
- n=100 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • Open-access clinical neurosurgery
- • Technical studies across neurosurgical subspecialties
- • International and regional neurosurgical evidence
Why it may fit
Open-access clinical and technical neurosurgery across regions and subspecialties.
Caution
Verify current indexing, fees, and article-type requirements.
CLINICAL NEUROLOGY AND NEUROSURGERY
Elsevier BV
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 1.9
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 496
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 54 days
- n=99 · 99% coverage
Suitable for
- • Clinical neurosurgical cohorts
- • Studies spanning neurological disease and operative care
- • Patient outcomes for neurologists and neurosurgeons
Why it may fit
Clinical studies bridging operative care, neurological disease, and patient outcomes.
Caution
Purely technical operative papers may need a more surgical readership.
Chinese Neurosurgical Journal
BioMed Central
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 1.7
- JCR quartile
- Q3
- 2025 publication volume
- 33
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 162 days
- n=57 · 100% coverage
Suitable for
- • Clinical practice and neurosurgical techniques
- • Translational work relevant to neurosurgery
- • Open-access studies for an international audience
Why it may fit
Broad clinical and translational neurosurgery with an international open-access audience.
Caution
Check whether the study's scope and evidence depth match recent issues.
Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
Korean Neurosurgical Society
- 2026 Impact Factor
- 1.9
- JCR quartile
- Q2
- 2025 publication volume
- 98
- Median submission-to-acceptance
- 94.5 days
- n=98 · 98% coverage
Suitable for
- • Clinical series and neurosurgical outcomes
- • Cranial, spine, vascular, and functional practice
- • Technique-centered clinical studies
Why it may fit
Clinical series, techniques, and outcomes across cranial, spine, and functional practice.
Caution
Regional title does not limit authorship, but audience fit still matters.
Journals receiving a first JIF in 2026
Explore newer metric entrants separately, then return to manuscript fit when building the final submission shortlist.
See the neurosurgery first-JIF analysis →Test the shortlist against your research
Compare manuscript fit with AI or examine the literature around your research topic in PubMed.
Methodology and limits
Broader-scope does not mean easy acceptance. There is no comprehensive acceptance-rate data for these journals, and the metrics on this page do not predict acceptance.
Publication volume uses OpenAlex works from the complete 2025 calendar year. OpenAlex works are not submissions or acceptances, so output describes publishing scale rather than editorial selectivity.
Timing uses qualified PubMed received-to-accepted date pairs from the fixed 2024–2025 window. It is a historical median, not a forecast. Missing date data is not evidence of speed, and unqualified journals are shown as “Not enough public date data.”
Confirm each journal's current scope, article types, author instructions, indexing, fees, and policies before submission.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose a general neurosurgery journal or a subspecialty journal?
Choose the audience that most needs the result. A general journal can suit evidence with field-wide implications, while a subspecialty journal is often the better match when the operation, pathology, methods, and practical implications are concentrated in spine, pediatric, functional, vascular, or another focused practice.
Does higher publication volume mean a journal is easier to enter?
No. The 2025 OpenAlex publication volume describes recent output, not an acceptance rate or editorial threshold. Use it to understand publishing scale only, then evaluate scope, article type, evidence quality, and audience fit.
What does the PubMed submission-to-acceptance timing mean?
The timing is a median calculated only for journals with qualified coverage of paired received and accepted dates in PubMed records. It is descriptive historical context, not a promise for a new submission or a substitute for the journal's current guidance.
How does the first-JIF analysis complement this guide?
The linked first-JIF analysis examines neurosurgery journals receiving a first Journal Impact Factor in the 2026 release. Use it to explore newer metric entrants, then return here to compare established shortlist options by manuscript fit.
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Canonical article: https://www.journalmetrics.org/blog/best-neurosurgery-journals