A Q1 journal is a journal ranked in the top 25% of its subject category by a citation metric, in a given year and in a given database. That last clause is the part most explanations skip, and it is why two colleagues can look up the same journal and come back with different quartiles. Q1 is not a stamp the journal owns. It is a position in a ranking, and there are several rankings.
This guide explains how quartiles are calculated in the two rankings that universities and funders use, Scimago Journal Rank (SJR, built on Scopus) and Journal Citation Reports (JCR, built on Web of Science), why one journal can be Q1 and Q2 at the same time, and how to check a quartile yourself, step by step, so the number you write in your CV or your application is the one your evaluator will accept.
Take every journal in a subject category, for example Public, Environmental and Occupational Health, and sort them by a citation metric from highest to lowest. Split the list into four equal parts. The top quarter is Q1, the next is Q2, then Q3 and Q4. A journal in the 20th position out of 200 is in the top 10% and therefore Q1; one in the 60th position is in Q2.
Three things fix the result: the database (Scopus or Web of Science), the subject category (journals are often assigned to more than one) and the year (rankings are recalculated every year). Change any of them and the quartile can change. Whenever you state a quartile, state all three: “Q1 in Psychiatry, JCR 2024”, not just “Q1”.
Most quartiles you will see come from one of these two sources. They measure similar things in different ways, and they do not always agree.
SJR is published by the Scimago research group with data from Scopus. Its indicator counts the citations a journal receives in a year to the documents it published in the previous three years, but not every citation weighs the same: a citation from a highly cited journal counts for more than one from a rarely cited journal. Journals are ranked within each Scopus subject category and split into quartiles. It is free to consult at scimagojr.com, which is why it is the quartile most researchers check first.
JCR is published by Clarivate with data from the Web of Science Core Collection. Its best-known metric, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), divides the citations received in one year by items published in the two previous years by the number of citable items published in those two years. Journals are ranked by JIF within each Web of Science category, and the quartile follows from that rank. JCR requires a subscription, usually through your university library.
JCR has changed in ways that matter when you compare old and new quartiles. Since the 2023 release, every journal in the Web of Science Core Collection receives a JIF, including those in the Emerging Sources Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and the JIF is displayed with one decimal place. Since the 2024 release, category rankings are unified across indexes, so journals from different indexes are ranked together in one list per category. Since the 2025 release, citations to and from retracted or withdrawn content no longer count toward the JIF numerator.
Scopus itself publishes CiteScore, with its own percentiles by category. It is a different metric from SJR, even though both use Scopus data, so a CiteScore percentile and an SJR quartile can disagree. If someone quotes a “Scopus quartile”, ask which of the two they mean.
Clarivate: changes to the 2023 Journal Citation Reports · Clarivate: unified rankings in the 2024 JCR · Clarivate: retracted content excluded from the 2025 JIF · Scimago Journal & Country Rank
Because it can sit in several categories. A journal on health psychology may be listed in Psychology, Clinical and in Public, Environmental and Occupational Health. The same metric that puts it in the top quarter of one list can leave it in the second quarter of the other, simply because the competition is different.
Because the two databases cover different journals and use different metrics. A journal can be Q1 in SJR and Q2 in JCR in the same year, or the other way round.
Because rankings move every year. A journal near the 25% boundary can cross it in either direction from one edition to the next, and the categories themselves are occasionally reorganized.
None of this is a trick. It simply means that a quartile only makes sense with its database, category and year attached.
The one your evaluator says. Universities, funders and national agencies write their own rules, and they differ on three points: which database (JCR, SJR or either), which year (the year of publication, the year of acceptance or the latest available edition) and which category (the best one, or the one closest to your field).
Read the call or regulation before you choose a journal, not after you publish. If the rules say JCR, an SJR quartile will not count, however good it is. When in doubt, keep a record with the database, edition, category, rank and quartile, plus a dated screenshot, for every paper you will need to justify.
Q1 describes the journal, not your paper. It says that the journal’s articles are, on average, cited more than most in its category. It says nothing about whether a particular article is correct, and it is not a guarantee of fast or fair review.
Be wary of journals that announce their own “Q1” or “impact factor” on their website. Check the claim at the source: search the journal in SJR, in Scopus Sources or in the Master Journal List. And reach the journal from the database’s own link rather than from a search result or an email. Journal websites can be hijacked: an expired domain is bought by someone else, who keeps the name and starts taking submissions and fees.
For your submission, the useful consequence is this: Q1 journals receive far more manuscripts than they can publish, so many are rejected at the editor’s desk, and those that reach reviewers are read by people who check design, analysis and reporting closely. The topic gets you read; the method gets you published.
On average, Q1 journals are more cited within their category, and many evaluators give them more weight. But the boundary between Q1 and Q2 is a line drawn at 25%, and a strong Q2 journal close to it differs little from a Q1 journal just above it. Fit with your paper matters more than one position in a ranking.
Not exactly. In JCR the quartile is derived from the Journal Impact Factor rank within a category, so a Q1 journal has one of the highest JIFs in that category. But a JIF of 3 can be Q1 in one field and Q3 in another, because citation habits differ between fields.
Yes. SJR and JCR use different databases, different metrics and different category systems, so the same journal can land in different quartiles, and some journals are indexed in only one of them.
In SJR, open Journal Rankings, filter by your subject category and sort by SJR: the top quarter of the list is Q1. In JCR, browse by category and filter by quartile. Avoid third-party lists that do not say which database, category and year they come from.
It can. Both rankings are recalculated every year, and a journal near the boundary between two quartiles may move up or down. That is why evaluators specify which year counts.