Despite the importance of cosine and cotangent function- based similarity measures, the literature has not provided a satisfactory formulation for the case of q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (qROFS). This paper criticizes the existing attempts in terms of respect of the basic axioms of a similarity measure and strict inclusion relation. In addition, the maximum operator-based similarity measures are criticized. Then, new improved, axiomatically supported cosine and cotangent function-based similarity measures for qROFSs are proposed. Additional properties of the new similarity measures are discussed to guarantee their good performance. Two algorithmic procedures of TOPSIS method that based on fixed and relative ideal solutions are discussed. The numerical examples are provided to support the findings