Best Surgery 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 Surgery journals

#Journalh-indexCitations/paper (2 yr)TierAccessIndexed in
1Gut
BMJ
45310.54FlagshipSubscriptionPubMed · Core
2Current Atherosclerosis Reports
Springer Science+Business Media
1136.78Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
3World Journal of Emergency Surgery
BioMed Central
1016.32Leading field journalOpen access · APC $3,490PubMed · DOAJ · Core
4JAMA Surgery
American Medical Association
1856.07Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
5European Cells and Materials1085.88Leading field journalOpen access · APC $1,000PubMed · DOAJ · Core
6Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Elsevier BV
2625.62Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
7Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy
Springer Science+Business Media
1945.11Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
8The American Journal of Sports Medicine
SAGE Publishing
3625.1Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
9Annals of Surgery
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
4565.07Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
10Current Opinion in Lipidology
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
1555.05Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
11Bioengineering
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
984.94Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,227PubMed · DOAJ · Core
12The Bone & Joint Journal
British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery
1334.9Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
13Journal of Molecular Medicine
Springer Science+Business Media
2004.71Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
14Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy
American Physical Therapy Association
1994.51Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
15Drug Design Development and Therapy
Dove Medical Press
1304.46Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,836PubMed · DOAJ · Core
16Helicobacter
Wiley
1084.37Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
17Current Gastroenterology Reports
Springer Science+Business Media
984.09Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
18Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research
BioMed Central
1013.95Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,790PubMed · DOAJ · Core
19World Journal of Gastroenterology
Baishideng Publishing Group
2623.9Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
20Pain Physician
American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
1283.84Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
21Journal of Gastroenterology
Springer Science+Business Media
1603.8Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
22European Journal of Anaesthesiology
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
1163.79Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
23JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
American Medical Association
1053.73Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
24Journal of Clinical Anesthesia
Elsevier BV
1143.62Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
25Transplant International
Springer Science+Business Media
1123.59Leading field journalOpen access · APC No APCPubMed · DOAJ · Core
26International Journal of Surgery
Wolters Kluwer
1333.58Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
27Cell Transplantation
SAGE Publishing
1383.48Leading field journalOpen access · APC $2,750PubMed · DOAJ · Core
28Tissue Engineering Part B Reviews
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
1353.44Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
29Aesthetic Surgery Journal
Oxford University Press
1093.34Leading field journalSubscriptionPubMed · Core
30Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
BMJ
1563.31Leading 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.

See the actual papers these journals publish

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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.