Journal profile
The Astrophysical Journal
The Astrophysical Journal is published by IOP Publishing under ISSN 0004-637X. It holds an h-index of 702 across 135,017 indexed works, with a two-year mean citedness of 5.47, and is open access. Its main subject areas are Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies, Astronomy and Astrophysical Research, Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies.
Below: the full publication record, and one real article from the journal formatted in IEEE, APA, and BibTeX so you can match field order against a source you can check.
Publication record and impact metrics
| Publisher | IOP Publishing |
|---|---|
| ISSN-L | 0004-637X |
| All ISSNs | 0004-637X, 1538-4357 |
| Indexed works | 135,017 |
| Total citations | 7,574,859 |
| h-index | 702 |
| 2-year mean citedness | 5.47 |
| Open access | Open access, listed in DOAJ |
| Main topics | Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research · Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies · Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena · Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations |
Publication figures come from this journal's OpenAlex record, released under CC0, and are a dated snapshot rather than a live count. Check the publisher for current scope and submission requirements.
A worked example from this journal
The source
Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae
- Authors
- S. Perlmutter, G. Aldering, G. Goldhaber, R. A. Knop, P. Nugent, P. G. Castro, and 27 more
- Year
- 1999
- Volume
- 517
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 565-586
IEEE
S. Perlmutter, G. Aldering, G. Goldhaber, R. A. Knop, P. Nugent, P. G. Castro et al. "Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae," The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 517, no. 2, pp. 565-586, 1999, doi: 10.1086/307221.
IEEE prints author initials before the surname and abbreviates the periodical title. Check the abbreviation for The Astrophysical Journal against your target publication's reference list before submitting.
APA
Perlmutter, S., Aldering, G., Goldhaber, G., Knop, R. A., Nugent, P., & Castro, P. G., et al. (1999). Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae. The Astrophysical Journal, 517(2), 565-586. https://doi.org/10.1086/307221
APA puts the year directly after the authors, keeps the full journal title in italics, and renders the DOI as a URL.
BibTeX
@article{perlmutter1999,
author = {S. Perlmutter and G. Aldering and G. Goldhaber and R. A. Knop and P. Nugent and P. G. Castro},
title = {Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
volume = {517},
number = {2},
pages = {565--586},
year = {1999},
issn = {0004-637X},
doi = {10.1086/307221}
}The citation key is the first author's surname and the year. Keep it stable once it appears in a draft, because renaming it breaks every cite that used it.
What to verify before you submit
- The volume and page range. The Astrophysical Journal records 135,017 works, and articles published online first can carry a different volume from the final issue. Cite the version you read.
- The abbreviated title. IEEE style uses standard periodical abbreviations, and registry metadata almost always returns the full name instead.
- Author name order. Registry records store full given names; IEEE and APA both want initials, formatted differently from each other.
- Whether the article is open access. This journal is open access and listed in DOAJ, which affects whether a reader can reach the version you cited.
- That the source supports your claim. A correctly formatted reference says nothing about whether the passage backs the sentence citing it.
How this journal sits in the record
The Astrophysical Journal carries an h-index of 702, which is above 96% of the journals covered here, and its articles have accumulated 7,574,859 citations across 135,017 indexed works. Its two-year mean citedness is 5.47.
4 of the journals covered here are published by IOP Publishing. Reference style is set per title rather than per publisher, so do not carry a format across from a sibling journal without checking.
These are indexing figures describing how often work in this venue is cited. They say nothing about whether a particular article is sound, and they are not a substitute for reading it.
Questions about The Astrophysical Journal
What is the ISSN of The Astrophysical Journal?
The linking ISSN is 0004-637X. The journal also carries 1538-4357, which usually separate the print and electronic editions. Use the linking ISSN in a BibTeX issn field.
Who publishes The Astrophysical Journal?
IOP Publishing publishes it. 4 journals covered here come from the same publisher, and they do not all share one reference style, so check the requirements for this title rather than the publisher.
Is The Astrophysical Journal open access?
OpenAlex records it as open access and it is listed in DOAJ. An open-access article is reachable by any reader, so a reviewer can check the passage you cited without a subscription.
How do I cite an article from The Astrophysical Journal in LaTeX?
Use the BibTeX entry above as the pattern. The entry type is article, the journal field holds the full title, and the citation key perlmutter1999 follows the first author's surname and the year. Brace any acronym in the title so your bibliography style does not lowercase it.
Does The Astrophysical Journal use page numbers or article numbers?
The example article runs from page 565 to 586, so this journal used page ranges at least for that volume. Newer issues in many journals switched to article numbers, so check the version you are citing.
How influential is The Astrophysical Journal?
Its h-index is 702, above 96% of the journals covered here, and its articles have been cited 7,574,859 times in total. Its two-year mean citedness is 5.47. These are indexing figures, not a judgement of whether a specific article is sound.
Does The Astrophysical Journal have a Journal Impact Factor?
Not one shown here. The Journal Impact Factor is Clarivate's metric, published in Journal Citation Reports and readable only with a JCR subscription, so this page does not restate it. The figures above come from OpenAlex: an h-index of 702 and a two-year mean citedness of 5.47 across 135,017 indexed works, captured on 2026-09-18. Mean citedness averages citations per work over a two-year window, which makes it closer in construction to CiteScore than to the Impact Factor. The three are not interchangeable, so quote whichever one your target venue actually asks for.