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
| # | Journal | h-index | Citations/paper (2 yr) | Tier | Access | Indexed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gut BMJ | 453 | 10.54 | Flagship | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 2 | Current Atherosclerosis Reports Springer Science+Business Media | 113 | 6.78 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 3 | World Journal of Emergency Surgery BioMed Central | 101 | 6.32 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $3,490 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 4 | JAMA Surgery American Medical Association | 185 | 6.07 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 5 | European Cells and Materials | 108 | 5.88 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $1,000 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 6 | Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology Elsevier BV | 262 | 5.62 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 7 | Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy Springer Science+Business Media | 194 | 5.11 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 8 | The American Journal of Sports Medicine SAGE Publishing | 362 | 5.1 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 9 | Annals of Surgery Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 456 | 5.07 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 10 | Current Opinion in Lipidology Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 155 | 5.05 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 11 | Bioengineering Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | 98 | 4.94 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,227 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 12 | The Bone & Joint Journal British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery | 133 | 4.9 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 13 | Journal of Molecular Medicine Springer Science+Business Media | 200 | 4.71 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 14 | Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy American Physical Therapy Association | 199 | 4.51 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 15 | Drug Design Development and Therapy Dove Medical Press | 130 | 4.46 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,836 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 16 | Helicobacter Wiley | 108 | 4.37 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 17 | Current Gastroenterology Reports Springer Science+Business Media | 98 | 4.09 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 18 | Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research BioMed Central | 101 | 3.95 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,790 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 19 | World Journal of Gastroenterology Baishideng Publishing Group | 262 | 3.9 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 20 | Pain Physician American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians | 128 | 3.84 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 21 | Journal of Gastroenterology Springer Science+Business Media | 160 | 3.8 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 22 | European Journal of Anaesthesiology Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | 116 | 3.79 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 23 | JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery American Medical Association | 105 | 3.73 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 24 | Journal of Clinical Anesthesia Elsevier BV | 114 | 3.62 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 25 | Transplant International Springer Science+Business Media | 112 | 3.59 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC No APC | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 26 | International Journal of Surgery Wolters Kluwer | 133 | 3.58 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 27 | Cell Transplantation SAGE Publishing | 138 | 3.48 | Leading field journal | Open access · APC $2,750 | PubMed · DOAJ · Core |
| 28 | Tissue Engineering Part B Reviews Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. | 135 | 3.44 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 29 | Aesthetic Surgery Journal Oxford University Press | 109 | 3.34 | Leading field journal | Subscription | PubMed · Core |
| 30 | Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine BMJ | 156 | 3.31 | Leading field journal | 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.

