World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Planetary and Space Science
H-index 24

Planetary and Space Science

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Physics 161 25 35 12

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 284
Documents by Best Scientists*: 273
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 12
SCIMAGO H-index: 111
SCIMAGO SJR: 0.607
Impact Factor: 1.7

Overview

Top Research Topics at Planetary and Space Science?

The journal mostly deals with topics like Geophysics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Atmospheric sciences and Atomic physics. While Planetary and Space Science focused on Geophysics, it was also able to explore topics like Computational physics, Earth's magnetic field, Magnetosphere and Solar wind. Computational physics and Magnetic field are closely related fields of research discussed in it.

The Solar wind research presented places emphasis on topics like Interplanetary magnetic field and Magnetopause. Studies on Astronomy discussed in the journal link to the field of Astrobiology. The majority of Astrophysics studies presented zero in on Cosmic ray.

Atmospheric sciences research presented in it encompasses a variety of subjects, including Atmosphere, Thermosphere, Altitude and Latitude. Some problems in Atomic physics that were presented in the journal overlapped with concepts under Plasma, Ion, Ionization, Excitation and Electron. The work on Ionosphere addressed in the journal expands to the thematically related Electric field.

  • Geophysics (21.73%)
  • Astronomy (14.13%)
  • Astrophysics (13.12%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • DUST -ACOUSTIC WAVES IN DUSTY PLASMAS (1744 citations)
  • A magnetospheric magnetic field model with a warped tail current sheet (1379 citations)
  • THE PASSAGE OF ENERGETIC CHARGED PARTICLES THROUGH INTERPLANETARY SPACE (1267 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Planetary and Space Science:

The journal papers generally zeroe in on subjects such as Geophysics, Atomic physics, Atmospheric sciences, Ionosphere and Magnetosphere. The journal articles tackle studies in Solar wind and the interrelated subject of Astronomy to gain insights into Geophysics. While the primary focus in the most cited articles is Atmospheric sciences, they also dissect topics surrounding Atmosphere and Planet and Venus as a whole.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Quantum mechanics
  • Optics
  • Electron

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The main research concerns discussed in the journal are Mars Exploration Program, Asteroid, Martian, Spacecraft and Astrophysics. The journal addresses concerns in Mars Exploration Program which are intertwined with other disciplines, such as Computational physics, Thermal, Mineralogy and Remote sensing. The study on Computational physics presented is investigated in conjunction with research in Electron.

The journal explores issues in Martian which can be linked to other research areas like Sedimentary rock, Atmosphere, Atmospheric sciences and Earth science. Topics in Atmospheric sciences were tackled in line with various other fields like Haze, Dust storm and Altitude. The Planet research presented falls under the domain of Astronomy.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Mars precession rate determined from radiometric tracking of the InSight Lander (4 citations)
  • LICIACube - The Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids In support of the NASA DART mission towards asteroid (65803) Didymos (4 citations)
  • Automated Multi-Dataset Analysis (AMDA): An on-line database and analysis tool for heliospheric and planetary plasma data (3 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Planetary and Space Science (based on the number of publications) are:

  • S.-I. Akasofu (106 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Christopher T. Russell (78 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
  • James W. Head (76 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
  • Eberhard Grün (60 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Desmond King-Hele (56 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Planetary and Space Science (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Max Planck Society (529 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 5 less than at the previous edition,
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (405 papers) published 6 papers at the last edition, 10 less than at the previous edition,
  • Russian Academy of Sciences (357 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition, 4 less than at the previous edition,
  • Centre national de la recherche scientifique (321 papers) published 6 papers at the last edition, 3 less than at the previous edition,
  • California Institute of Technology (270 papers) published 7 papers at the last edition, 13 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 7.20% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 22.41% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 14.66% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 16.38% of all publications and 46.55% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • Ice Giant Systems: The scientific potential of orbital missions to Uranus and Neptune

    Leigh N. Fletcher;Ravit Helled;Elias Roussos;Geraint Jones

    (2020)
    47 Citations
  • The Holy Grail: A road map for unlocking the climate record stored within Mars’ polar layered deposits

    Isaac B. Smith;Isaac B. Smith;Paul O. Hayne;Shane Byrne;Patricio Becerra

    (2020)
    40 Citations
  • Implications for the origin and evolution of Martian Recurring Slope Lineae at Hale crater from CaSSIS observations

    G. Munaretto;G. Munaretto;M. Pajola;Gabriele Cremonese;C. Re

    (2020)
    33 Citations
  • The MASCOT lander aboard Hayabusa2: The in-situ exploration of NEA (162173) Ryugu

    Tra-Mi Ho;Ralf Jaumann;Jean-Pierre Bibring;Matthias Grott

    (2021)
    19 Citations
  • Dynamics of recent landslides (<20 My) on Mars: Insights from high-resolution topography on Earth and Mars and numerical modelling

    A. Guimpier;A. Guimpier;S.J. Conway;A. Mangeney;A. Lucas

    (2021)
    19 Citations
  • Joint Europa Mission (JEM): a multi-scale study of Europa to characterize its habitability and search for extant life

    Michel Blanc;Olga Prieto-Ballesteros;Nicolas André;Javier Gomez-Elvira

    (2020)
    17 Citations
  • Regions of interest on Ganymede's and Callisto's surfaces as potential targets for ESA's JUICE mission

    K. Stephan;T. Roatsch;F. Tosi;K. D. Matz

    (2021)
    16 Citations
  • 3DPD: A photogrammetric pipeline for a PUSH frame stereo cameras

    E. Simioni;C. Re;T. Mudric;G. Cremonese

    (2021)
    16 Citations
  • Science opportunities with solar sailing smallsats

    (2023)
    13 Citations
  • Porosity gradients as a means of driving lateral flows at cometary surfaces

    Chariton Christou;S. Kokou Dadzie;Raphael Marschall;Raphael Marschall;Nicolas Thomas

    (2020)
    12 Citations

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal