Best Ophthalmology 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 Ophthalmology journals
| # | Journal | h-index | Citations/paper (2 yr) | Tier | Access | Indexed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Progress in Retinal and Eye Research Elsevier BV | 235 | 12.38 | Flagship | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 2 | Survey of Ophthalmology Elsevier BV | 214 | 4.98 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 3 | JAMA Ophthalmology American Medical Association | 142 | 4.34 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 4 | British Journal of Ophthalmology BMJ | 241 | 3.94 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 5 | Ophthalmology Elsevier BV | 372 | 3.61 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 6 | American Journal of Ophthalmology Elsevier BV | 290 | 3.61 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 7 | Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science Cadmus Press | 261 | 3.58 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $1,850 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 8 | Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics Wiley | 113 | 3.55 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 9 | Current Opinion in Ophthalmology Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 123 | 3.44 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 10 | Eye Springer Nature | 170 | 2.79 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 11 | Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology Wiley | 107 | 2.29 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 12 | Journal of Glaucoma Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 122 | 2.27 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 13 | Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 196 | 2.23 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 14 | Optometry and Vision Science Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 162 | 2.22 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 15 | Graefe s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology Springer Science+Business Media | 146 | 2.19 | Accessible & legitimate | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 16 | Clinical ophthalmology Dove Medical Press | 101 | 2.13 | Accessible & legitimate | Open access · APC $2,320 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 17 | Current Eye Research Taylor & Francis | 119 | 1.68 | Accessible & legitimate | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 18 | Retina Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 172 | 1.49 | Accessible & legitimate | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 19 | Indian Journal of Ophthalmology Medknow | 97 | 1.37 | Accessible & legitimate | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 20 | Acta Ophthalmologica Wiley | 127 | 0.75 | Accessible & legitimate | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 21 | Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Elsevier BV | 96 | 0.58 | Accessible & legitimate | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 22 | Archives of Ophthalmology American Medical Association | 312 | 0 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 23 | Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Wiley | 105 | 0 | Accessible & legitimate | 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.

