Best Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Journals (2026)

Paste your title and abstract to get 5 realistic matches from verified biomedical journals — every publisher, no predatory journals, and your abstract is never stored.

Type your field and pick it to see the top-ranked journals — every journal listed is indexed in PubMed, DOAJ, or a curated core source list.

Top Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience journals

#Journalh-indexCitations/paper (2 yr)TierAccessIndexed in
1Nature reviews. Neuroscience
Nature Portfolio
57415.07FlagshipSubscriptionPubMed · Core
2Neuron
Cell Press
70013.4FlagshipSubscriptionPubMed · Core
3Annual Review of Neuroscience
Annual Reviews
37512.42Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
4Pharmacological Research
Elsevier BV
22110.77Leading field journalOpen access · APC $3,500PubMed · DOAJ · Core
5Trends in Neurosciences
Elsevier BV
4427.57Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
6Life Sciences
Elsevier BV
2886.17Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
7Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Springer Science+Business Media
1275.49Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
8Neurochemistry International
Elsevier BV
1715.25Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
9Current Opinion in Neurobiology
Elsevier BV
3095.04Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
10Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
Frontiers Media
1765.04Leading field journalOpen access · APC $3,295PubMed · DOAJ · Core
11Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
Frontiers Media
1454.83Leading field journalOpen access · APC $3,295PubMed · DOAJ · Core
12Neuropsychopharmacology
Springer Nature
3084.69Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
13European Journal of Pharmacology
Elsevier BV
2774.42Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
14Glia
Wiley
2344.33Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
15Progress in Neurobiology
Elsevier BV
3244.32Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
16Reviews in the Neurosciences
De Gruyter
1094.22Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
17Journal of Psychopharmacology
SAGE Publishing
1694.13Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
18Molecular Brain
BioMed Central
994.06Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,990PubMed · DOAJ · Core
19Peptides
Elsevier BV
1754.02Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
20Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Elsevier BV
1733.99Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
21Journal of Neurochemistry
Wiley
3503.96Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
22Journal of Neuroscience
Society for Neuroscience
6563.95FlagshipSubscriptionPubMed · Core
23Pharmacological Reports
Elsevier BV
993.91Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
24Neuropharmacology
Elsevier BV
2463.87Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
25Experimental Neurology
Elsevier BV
2733.81Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
26Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Wiley
3993.62Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
27Neurochemical Research
Springer Science+Business Media
1643.62Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
28Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Elsevier BV
1883.51Solid specialistSubscriptionPubMed · Core
29Brain Research Bulletin
Elsevier BV
2043.43Solid specialistOpen access · APC $2,700PubMed · DOAJ · Core
30The Journal of Physiology
Wiley
4843.34Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core

Frequently asked questions

How does the journal finder work?+

You paste your title and abstract; an AI model classifies the paper into biomedical subfields and honestly assesses its scope, then ranks a shortlist of verified journals from our dataset of 2,600+ biomedical journals. Every metric shown comes from the dataset — the AI can never invent a journal or a number.

Is it free?+

Yes — free, no signup, no hidden trial. There's a fair-use limit of 15 matches per day. Browsing ranked journals by field is unlimited.

How is this different from JANE or the Elsevier Journal Finder?+

Publisher tools like Elsevier's, Springer's, or Wiley's finders only recommend their own journals. JANE is cross-publisher but hasn't changed since 2007 and can surface journals of unverified quality from PubMed. This finder is cross-publisher, only shows journals verified in trusted indexes, and calibrates recommendations to your paper's realistic tier.

How do you keep predatory journals out?+

By construction: every journal in our dataset must be indexed in DOAJ, PubMed, or a curated core source list, with a real citation record. Journals with no verified quality signals simply never appear — we don't maintain accusatory blacklists.

Is my abstract stored or used to train AI?+

No. Your abstract is processed to generate recommendations and is not stored, logged, or used for model training. We know unpublished work is sensitive.

Which fields are covered?+

All of biomedicine and the life sciences: 38 subfields from molecular biology, immunology, and oncology to public health, pharmacology, neuroscience, plant science, and veterinary medicine.

Why don't you show impact factors?+

The Journal Impact Factor is proprietary to Clarivate and requires a paid license. We show open, verifiable alternatives instead: h-index and 2-year citations per paper from OpenAlex, plus each journal's percentile within its own field — which is more informative for comparing journals in the same specialty.

Where does the data come from?+

From open, verifiable sources: OpenAlex (CC0) for citation metrics, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's PubMed journal list, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Publishing in the wrong venue has real consequences — in 2019 a U.S. federal court ordered the publisher OMICS Group to pay $50.1 million for deceptive peer-review claims. When in doubt about any journal, use the Think. Check. Submit. checklist at thinkchecksubmit.org.

How do I find top-quartile journals in my field?+

Use the browse section: pick your subfield and the table ranks journals by 2-year citations per paper. Tier 1–2 journals roughly correspond to the top quartile of a field. Each row shows open-access status, publication fees (APC), and which trusted indexes list the journal.

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Data: OpenAlex (CC0) · U.S. National Library of Medicine · DOAJ. Quality signals are informational, refreshed periodically, and are not an endorsement or judgment about any journal; no endorsement by NLM/NIH is implied. Spotted an error? Contact us and we'll review it.