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The Astrophysical Journal
Physics and astronomyOpen accessIn DOAJ
Among the 48 physics and astronomy journals in this index it has the 2nd highest h-index and the 14th highest two-year mean citedness. Both are explained under how venues are ranked.
Listed article processing charge: about $4 499.
Where its authors come from
Share of the 14 595 papers since 2023 with at least one author in each country.
| Country | Share of papers |
|---|---|
| United States | 53% |
| China | 24% |
| United Kingdom | 15% |
| Germany | 14% |
| Japan | 11% |
What it publishes
Mix of article types:
| Type | Share |
|---|---|
| Research articles | 99% |
Main subject areas of those papers:
| Subject area | Share of papers |
|---|---|
| Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena | 22% |
| Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies | 15% |
| Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics | 14% |
| Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies | 10% |
| Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations | 10% |
| Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae | 8% |
Most cited papers since 2023
- Little Red Dots: An Abundant Population of Faint Active Galactic Nuclei at z ∼ 5 Revealed by the EIGER and FRESCO JWST Surveys (2024, 542 citations)
- A JWST/NIRSpec First Census of Broad-line AGNs at z = 4–7: Detection of 10 Faint AGNs with M BH ∼ 106–108 M ⊙ and Their Host Galaxy Properties (2023, 493 citations)
- UNCOVER Spectroscopy Confirms the Surprising Ubiquity of Active Galactic Nuclei in Red Sources at z > 5 (2024, 429 citations)
- The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 Gravitational Lensing Map and Cosmological Parameters (2024, 354 citations)
- COSMOS-Web: An Overview of the JWST Cosmic Origins Survey (2023, 303 citations)
Official rankings
Many evaluations use a national or commercial list rather than raw citation counts. We don't reproduce those lists here; check the journal on each one directly (search for ISSN 0004-637X):
- Scimago (SJR and quartile): what quartiles mean
- Norwegian register (level 1 or 2): national lists explained
- Finnish Publication Forum (JUFO level 0 to 3)
Similar journals
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- The Astronomical Journal
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Citation measures from open bibliographic data, retrieved 2026-10-17; values differ from Scopus or Web of Science. Data sources. DeskReady is not affiliated with this journal.