About Superconductivity

Superconductivity

Superconductivity is an open-access, multidisciplinary journal owned by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and published by Elsevier. It carries Chinese domestic serial number CN 31-2188/TM and online ISSN 2772-8307. Launched in 2022, it publishes four volumes a year and had reached Volumes 17–18 in progress in 2026. Despite its youth it has achieved striking bibliometric standing: ScienceDirect lists an Impact Factor of 6.2 and a CiteScore of 6.7, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University describes it as the only global superconductivity journal in Journal Citation Reports Q1. It covers the whole field of superconductivity, from fundamentals to applications, including superconducting materials, magnets and devices, and large-scale applications such as fusion and power systems.

Origins and Publication Pattern

The journal began publishing in 2022, issuing Volumes 1–4 in its first year — a quarterly volume pattern it has maintained, so that by 2026 its volume numbering had reached the high teens, with Volumes 17–18 in progress. SCImago records coverage from 2022 onward. A publication rhythm of four volumes a year gives the journal a continuous flow of articles rather than a small number of issues, a model suited to a research field in which preprints and rapid results are normal. That the title carries a Chinese domestic serial number (CN 31-2188/TM) alongside its international ISSN identifies it formally as a Chinese journal operating through an international publisher, in the pattern of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Elsevier partnership titles.

Ownership and Publisher

Superconductivity is owned by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which holds the copyright, and is published by Elsevier B.V. on ScienceDirect. As an open-access journal it charges an article publishing charge, listed by Elsevier at 2,100 US dollars excluding taxes. The university's ownership places the journal within Shanghai Jiao Tong University's broader strategy of building internationally visible, English-language journals in fields of Chinese research strength — superconductivity being an area in which Chinese institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiao Tong University itself, are major producers of research.

Aims and Scope

The journal describes itself as an open-access multidisciplinary journal encompassing the general field of superconductivity and relevant subjects, from fundamentals to application. In practice that spans the physics of superconducting materials and mechanisms, the engineering of superconducting magnets and devices, and large-scale applications including fusion energy and power systems. Its subject categories in citation databases — condensed matter physics, electrical and electronic engineering, electronic, optical and magnetic materials, and energy engineering and power technology — map that breadth: a single title serving communities that might otherwise publish in separate physics, materials and engineering journals.

Editorial Leadership

According to its ScienceDirect editorial board page, the journal's Editors-in-Chief are Zhijian Jin of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, whose interests are the large-scale application of high-temperature superconductivity and energy interconnections, and Qiuliang Wang of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, whose work covers large-scale applied superconductivity technologies in space and medicine, scientific instruments, cryogenics, electromagnetic field calculation and materials fabrication technology. The Honorary Editor-in-Chief is Shixue Dou, recognised for work on superconductivity, electronic and energy storage materials and the commercialisation of nanomaterials and technology. Deputy Editors-in-Chief include Yue Zhao of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhen Wang of the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The leadership is thus weighted toward applied superconductivity — magnets, large-scale systems and energy applications — consistent with the journal's fundamentals-to-applications brief.

Metrics and Rankings

The journal's citation performance is exceptional for its age. ScienceDirect lists an Impact Factor of 6.2 and a CiteScore of 6.7. SCImago has recorded an SJR of 1.724 with an h-index of 14 in its earlier data, and quartile summaries based on Journal Citation Reports place the journal in Q1 across its categories; Shanghai Jiao Tong University states that it is the only global superconductivity journal in JCR Q1. Third-party metric trackers have recorded the title's impact measures rising further in the 2025 cycle, though figures vary by source and year and the publisher's ScienceDirect page remains the authoritative reference. For authors, a Q1, high-impact-factor title dedicated solely to superconductivity is a rare combination: the field's older journals are generally broader in scope or lower in impact standing.

Independent journal-ranking services tell the same story from Scopus data. Resurchify's summary of the title records an SJR of 1.724, an h-index of 14 and coverage from 2022 to 2025, and classifies the journal in the first quartile (Q1) in each of its four subject categories: condensed matter physics; electrical and electronic engineering; electronic, optical and magnetic materials; and energy engineering and power technology. Research.com likewise lists the journal with the Elsevier imprint and its ISSN 2772-8307 and records an SCImago h-index of 14. Because third-party trackers refresh on different cycles, their figures differ in detail from one another and from the publisher's headline metrics, but they agree on the essential point: within three years of launch the journal was ranking in the top quartile of every category in which it is classified.

Open Access Model

Superconductivity is fully open access: its articles are freely available to readers on ScienceDirect immediately on publication, funded by the article publishing charge of 2,100 US dollars rather than by subscriptions. Open access matters particularly in applied superconductivity, where readers include engineers in industry, magnet and cable manufacturers, and fusion and power-system programmes as well as university researchers, many of whom lack subscription access to traditional journals. The model also aligns the journal with funder open-access mandates in Europe, China and elsewhere.

The Field It Serves

Superconductivity research addresses materials that conduct electricity without resistance, with applications in high-field magnets for medicine and research, fusion reactors, power transmission, energy storage and quantum technologies. Large-scale applications — the specialism of both editors-in-chief — have gained urgency with the growth of private and public fusion programmes and the modernisation of power grids. A journal that treats fundamentals and these applications in one place serves a community whose laboratory discoveries and engineering deployments are tightly coupled: advances in conductor materials change what magnets can be built, and magnet requirements drive materials research. The journal's Shanghai base places it in a country investing heavily in exactly these applications.

Distinction from Other Superconductivity Titles

The journal's single-word title should not be confused with older, similarly named publications. It is distinct from Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, an Elsevier journal published since the late twentieth century, and from Springer's Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, founded in 1988. Superconductivity, founded in 2022, is the Shanghai Jiao Tong University–owned, Elsevier-published open-access title with ISSN 2772-8307; its youth, open-access model, Chinese ownership and Q1 metrics together separate it from those established subscription-era journals, whose scope and ownership are different.

Place in Chinese Scientific Publishing

Superconductivity exemplifies the recent generation of Chinese university-owned, internationally published journals: English-language, open access, distributed globally by a major publisher, and edited by leading domestic researchers. Its rapid rise to Q1 standing with an Impact Factor above 6 demonstrates that a new journal in a well-chosen niche, backed by a research-intensive university in a field of national strength, can reach the top tier of its discipline within a few years. Shanghai Jiao Tong University presents it as a flagship of that approach, and its performance is a reference point for other Chinese institutions building journals in specialised fields.

Official Website and Access

The journal's official home is its ScienceDirect page at sciencedirect.com/journal/superconductivity, which carries its aims and scope, editorial board, journal insights including current Impact Factor and CiteScore, article publishing charge information and all published volumes from 2022 onward. All articles are open access, and prospective authors should consult the ScienceDirect guide for authors for current submission requirements before preparing a manuscript.