How to find a journal's quartile

To find a journal's quartile, search its exact title or ISSN in a free metrics database such as Journal Metrics or SCImago, open the journal's record, and read the quartile listed for each subject category. Journal Metrics lists subfield quartiles for 22,642 journals across 243 OpenAlex subfields, computed from the August 2026 OpenAlex snapshot. A quartile always belongs to a category and a year, so note both when you report it.

What does a journal quartile tell you?

A quartile places a journal in the top, second, third or bottom 25% of journals in one subject category, ranked by one citation metric. Q1 is the top 25%. A journal can be Q1 in one category and Q2 in another. For example, Scientific Reports is listed in 2 subfields on Journal Metrics: Q1 in Cancer Research, Q1 in Molecular Biology.

For how a score turns into a quartile, see how the score is computed and what is a good Journal Metrics Score.

Where can you check a journal's quartile for free?

How do you check a quartile on Journal Metrics?

It takes about ten seconds, is free and needs no account.

1. Search the journal's title or ISSN on the Journal Metrics homepage.
2. Confirm that the ISSN on the record matches the ISSN on the publisher's website, so you have the right journal and not a similarly named one.
3. Read the best quartile next to the score, then the quartile for each subfield listed on the page.
4. Note the snapshot shown with the score (currently August 2026, based on 2025 citations).
5. If your institution requires a specific source, check that source too, because quartiles differ between databases.

To browse instead of search, the Q1 chemistry journals list and the other journal explorer pages group journals by field and quartile.

Why does the same journal have different quartiles on different sites?

Each source uses its own citation data, its own metric and its own category list, and they update in different months. OpenAlex covers more journals than Scopus, so a journal's category neighbors differ between Journal Metrics and SCImago. A Q2 in one source and a Q1 in another is normal and does not mean either is wrong.

Common mistakes

• Checking a journal with a similar name. Always match the ISSN.
• Reporting “Q1” without the category and the year.
• Using last year's quartile after a new snapshot is out.
• Treating quartile as a quality guarantee. Check scope, indexing and review practices too; see how to verify journal indexing.

Which quartile should you report?

Report the source your university, funder or promotion committee names. When none is named, give the source, the category and the year, for example “Q1 in Cancer Research, Journal Metrics, 2026”.

Frequently asked questions