Best Cognitive 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 Cognitive Neuroscience journals
| # | Journal | h-index | Citations/paper (2 yr) | Tier | Access | Indexed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nature Neuroscience Nature Portfolio | 605 | 17.14 | Flagship | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 2 | Trends in Cognitive Sciences Elsevier BV | 463 | 10.05 | Flagship | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 3 | Sleep Medicine Reviews Elsevier BV | 229 | 7.92 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 4 | Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Elsevier BV | 376 | 7.76 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 5 | Autism SAGE Publishing | 178 | 6.21 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 6 | Translational Psychiatry Springer Nature | 182 | 6.17 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $4,790 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 7 | Neuropsychology Review Springer Science+Business Media | 143 | 6.14 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 8 | IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | 190 | 5.86 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 9 | Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences Elsevier BV | 119 | 5.78 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 10 | Molecular Autism BioMed Central | 115 | 5.36 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,490 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 11 | Frontiers in Neuroinformatics Frontiers Media | 113 | 5.09 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 12 | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Elsevier BV | 129 | 5.02 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,280 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 13 | Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Elsevier BV | 152 | 4.81 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 14 | Human Brain Mapping Wiley | 276 | 4.71 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,850 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 15 | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience Frontiers Media | 107 | 4.23 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 16 | Frontiers in Neuroscience Frontiers Media | 225 | 4.11 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 17 | Journal of Neural Engineering IOP Publishing | 166 | 4.11 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 18 | Cerebral Cortex Oxford University Press | 350 | 4.06 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 19 | NeuroImage Elsevier BV | 534 | 4.05 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,450 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 20 | BMC Neuroscience BioMed Central | 136 | 3.95 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,790 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 21 | Brain Sciences Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | 114 | 3.9 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,227 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 22 | Network Computation in Neural Systems Taylor & Francis | 102 | 3.89 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 23 | IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | 311 | 3.84 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 24 | Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance American Psychological Association | 292 | 3.52 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 25 | NeuroImage Clinical Elsevier BV | 134 | 3.52 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $3,400 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 26 | Psychophysiology Wiley | 265 | 3.5 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 27 | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Frontiers Media | 139 | 3.42 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 28 | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Frontiers Media | 223 | 3.34 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 29 | Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience Frontiers Media | 103 | 3.34 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $3,295 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 30 | Journal of Sleep Research Wiley | 177 | 3.31 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · 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.
See the actual papers these journals publish
Waffoo Search runs AI-powered literature discovery across 30+ biomedical databases — free.
Try Waffoo SearchData: 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.

