Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia; about 60–80% of people with dementia have Alzheimer’s. In high-income countries, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are the second leading cause of death, and the global burden of disease is estimated at 25.3 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide. 
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disorder and mostly affects people aged over 65, although it can affect younger people. There is no cure, however health professionals play a key role in helping people manage their symptoms through medications, lifestyle changes and cognitive and social functioning therapy.
To help support the work of health professionals working with people with Alzheimer’s disease, we’ve researched the top journals that exclusively focus on Alzheimer’s and dementia research.
Journal metrics
Impact factor: is based on Web of Science data and only includes documents such as articles and reviews. It measures the average number of times an article is cited by other journal articles and documents. An impact factor of 3 or more is considered good, 1 is average. This list uses the 2-year impact factor from SCImago.
CiteScore: is based on Scopus data for all indexed documents, including articles, letters and editorials. Like impact factor, it measures the average citations received per document published in a journal over a 4-year time period.
Impact factor and CiteScore have the most meaning when used to compare journals within the same therapeutic area of subject. Many academics value a journal’s impact factor over its Citescore; therefore they will use the impact factor to rank other journals in the same field.
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): measures the citations received from a journal but it also considers the importance of the journal where the citations have come from. This measurement can be helpful to rank journals within the same field and category.
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): measures citations weighted by subject field. A SNIP over 1.0 means a journal has more citations than average.
Impact Factor: 13.680
CiteScore: 22.5
SJR: 6.713
SNIP: 4.108
Alzheimer’s and Dementia is one of three journals of the Alzheimer’s Association. It publishes review articles, commentaries, research articles, reports, news and letters that focus on dementia aetiology, prevention, detection and treatment. Published since 2005 by Wiley-Blackwell, recent articles include gender differences in dementia and response to a lifestyle intervention, discussion on plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, and the risk of dementia following coronary artery bypass grafting.
Impact Factor: 7.099
CiteScore: 9.1
SJR: 2.490
SNIP: 1.833
Another journal by the Alzheimer’s Association, this journal focuses on drugs and clinical studies. It’s published once a year and includes research articles, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, research news and other content that specifically aims to advance patient care.
Impact Factor: 6.420
CiteScore: 9.3
SJR: 2.802
SNIP: 1.657
Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy is an open access online only journal. It publishes content related to research, clinical trials, drug discovery and epidemiological studies. It’s published by BioMed Central Ltd (BMC), part of Springer Nature. You can also follow the journal on Twitter.
Impact Factor: 4.791
CiteScore: 8.0
SJR: 2.497
SNIP: 1.563
Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring, is the third journal from the Alzheimer’s Association. The journal focuses on the detection of all forms and stages of dementia. Recent articles include the genetic aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease, and differential blood DNA methylation across Lewy body dementias.
Impact Factor: 3.783
CiteScore: 5.7
SJR: 1.733
SNIP: Not available
The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease is published by Springer Nature. Like its name suggests, the journal focuses on Alzheimer prevention and includes reports, original research and reviews. Some of the content is open access.
Impact Factor: 3.345
CiteScore: 6.0
SJR: 1.032
SNIP: 0.896
Current Alzheimer Research is aimed at health professionals, researchers and educators working within the dementia and Alzheimer’s disease field. First published in 2004, content includes research, reviews, clinical trial results and letters focusing on the neurobiology, genetics, pathogenesis and treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Impact Factor: 2.331
CiteScore: 4.2
SJR: 1.213
SNIP: 1.007
Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders is published four times a year by Wolters Kluwer Health. Recent articles include a focus on obesity and oxidative stress in older adults at risk for dementia, confluent white matter in progression to Alzheimer’s, and body mass changes in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. Some of the content is open access.
Impact Factor: 1.853
CiteScore: 2.8
SJR: 0.653
SNIP: 0.809
Rounding out our list is the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias, published by SAGE. This journal will interest all health professionals working with people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It supports open access and includes content that encompasses all aspects of dementia care such as aetiology, diagnosis, nursing considerations and psychological issues.
Other neurology, behavioural neuroscience, gerontology and cognitive neuroscience journals also regularly publish Alzheimer’s Disease specific articles. It’s worth regularly checking the latest issues of highly-ranked journals such as The Lancet Neurology, Nature Reviews Neurology, JAMA Neurology and Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience to keep up-to-date with the latest from the Alzheimer’s and dementia field.
References
The top 10 causes of death, World Health Organization, 2020
