Each year, the Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) from Web of Science Group examines the influence and impact of scholarly research journals. JCR reveals the relationship between citing and cited journals, offering a systematic, objective means to evaluate the world’s leading journals.

Journal Citation Reports

The 2020 JCR study, released in June 2021, reveals that IEEE journals continue to maintain rankings at the top of their fields. Below are JCR results for journals in two major categories, based on three key methods of citation measurement.

Journal Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from a journal published in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year. These results are those generally used and relied upon by technical publications and their stakeholders.

Eigenfactor® Score takes into account the number of times articles from a journal published in the last five years have been cited in the JCR year while also considering which journals have contributed these citations. High-scoring journals have a greater influence in the scientific community.

Article Influence® Score formula determines the average influence of a journal’s articles over the first five years after publication.

Year after year, IEEE journals are ranked highly across a number of JCR metrics.

Details of current journal rankings appear below. IEEE titles appear in bold.

Top journals by Journal Impact Factor

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

IEEE has 20 of the top 25 journals in Electrical and Electronic Engineering by Journal Impact Factor:

  1. Nature Electronics
  2. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
  3. njp Flexible Electronics
  4. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine
  5. Progress in Quantum Electronics
  6. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
  7. IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
  8. Proceedings of the IEEE
  9. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
  10. IEEE Network
  11. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
  12. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
  13. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 
  14. IEEE Communications Magazine
  15. IEEE Internet of Things Journal
  16. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 
  17. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 
  18. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
  19. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy
  20. Pattern Recognition
  21. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security
  22. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 
  23. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 
  24. Expert Systems with Applications
  25. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing

Telecommunications

IEEE has 9 of the top 10 journals in Telecommunications by Journal Impact Factor:

  1. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
  2. IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
  3. IEEE Network
  4. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
  5. IEEE Communications Magazine
  6. IEEE Internet of Things Journal
  7. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  8. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing
  9. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing
  10. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

Other top IEEE journals

  • Automation and Control Systems
    #1 IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems
    #2 IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
    #3 IEEE Control Systems Magazine
    #4 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
  • Computer Science—Artificial Intelligence
    #1 IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
    #4 IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
  • Computer Science—Cybernetics
    #1 IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems
    #2 IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing
  • Computer Science—Hardware & Architecture
    #1 IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
    #2 IEEE Network
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
    #4 IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing
  • Computer Science—Information Systems
    #1 IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
    #3 IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
    #5 IEEE Network
  • Computer Science—Interdisciplinary Applications
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
  • Computer Science—Software Engineering
    #1 IEEE Transactions on Services Computing
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Multimedia
  • Computer Science—Theory & Methods
    #2 IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
  • Engineering—Aerospace
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
  • Engineering—Civil
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Engineering—Industrial
    #1 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
  • Engineering—Ocean
    #3 IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering
  • Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
    #2 IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
    #4 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine
    #5 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
  • Instruments and Instrumentation
    #2 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
  • Medical Informatics
    #4 IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics
  • Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging
    #4 IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
  • Remote Sensing
    #3 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
  • Robotics
    #4 IEEE Transactions on Robotics
    #5 IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine
  • Transportation Science & Technology
    #3 IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine

Top journals by Eigenfactor Score

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

IEEE has 8 of the top 10 journals in Electrical and Electronic Engineering by Eigenfactor Score:

  1. IEEE Access
  2. Sensors
  3. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
  4. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
  5. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
  6. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
  7. Automatica
  8. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
  9. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 
  10. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 

Telecommunications

IEEE has the top 10 journals in Telecommunications by Eigenfactor Score:

  1. IEEE Access
  2. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
  3. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
  4. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
  5. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
  6. IEEE Communications Magazine
  7. IEEE Internet of  Things Journal 
  8. Journal of Lightwave Technology
  9. IEEE Transactions on Communications
  10. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications

Top journals by Article Influence Score

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

IEEE has 8 of the top 10 journals in Electrical and Electronic Engineering by Article Influence Score:

  1. Nature Electronics
  2. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
  3. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine
  4. Proceedings of the IEEE
  5. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
  6. IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine
  7. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
  8. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine 
  9. IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
  10. njp Flexible Electronics

Telecommunications

IEEE has 9 of the top 10 journals in Telecommunications by Article Influence Score:

  1. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
  2. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
  3. IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
  4. IEEE Communications Magazine
  5. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  6. IEEE Network
  7. IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks 
  8. IEEE Internet of Things Journal
  9. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia
  10. Bell Labs Technical Journal (available via IEEE Xplore Digital Library)
* Rankings are current as of June 2021