Best Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine 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 Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine journals
| # | Journal | h-index | Citations/paper (2 yr) | Tier | Access | Indexed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Lancet Respiratory Medicine Elsevier BV | 256 | 10.62 | Flagship | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 2 | European Respiratory Review European Respiratory Society | 135 | 9.82 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 3 | European Respiratory Journal European Respiratory Society | 358 | 8.49 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 4 | Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Elsevier BV | 460 | 7.05 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 5 | Gastric Cancer Springer Science+Business Media | 127 | 5.65 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 6 | Annals of Translational Medicine AME Publishing Company | 119 | 5.59 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC — | PubMed · Core |
| 7 | Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases Springer Nature | 100 | 5.38 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 8 | Respiratory Research BioMed Central | 159 | 5.35 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,190 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 9 | Nature Reviews Urology Nature Portfolio | 139 | 5.34 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 10 | Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Thieme Medical Publishers (Germany) | 101 | 4.61 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 11 | Seminars in Radiation Oncology Elsevier BV | 122 | 4.46 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 12 | Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology Elsevier BV | 185 | 3.67 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 13 | Thorax BMJ | 321 | 3.61 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 14 | American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology American Physical Society | 209 | 3.46 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 15 | International Journal of COPD Dove Medical Press | 112 | 3.31 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,836 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 16 | Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology Springer Science+Business Media | 107 | 3.28 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 17 | Radiation Oncology BioMed Central | 116 | 3.17 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,990 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 18 | Journal of Applied Physiology American Physiological Society | 403 | 3.08 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 19 | World Journal of Urology Springer Science+Business Media | 129 | 2.98 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 20 | Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 104 | 2.93 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 21 | American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology American Thoracic Society | 213 | 2.85 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 22 | BMC Pulmonary Medicine BioMed Central | 107 | 2.83 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,790 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 23 | Neonatology Karger Publishers | 116 | 2.82 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 24 | European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Oxford University Press | 185 | 2.81 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 25 | Journal of Korean Medical Science Korean Academy of Medical Sciences | 112 | 2.78 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $690 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 26 | Journal of Endourology Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. | 127 | 2.56 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 27 | Yonsei Medical Journal Yonsei University College of Medicine | 97 | 2.5 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $700 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 28 | Respirology Wiley | 137 | 2.47 | Solid specialist | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 29 | World Journal of Surgical Oncology BioMed Central | 100 | 2.47 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC $2,890 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 30 | Acta Oncologica Taylor & Francis | 150 | 2.46 | Solid specialist | Open access · APC — | PubMed · DOAJ · 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.

