Journal rankings · indicator year 2012
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2012
Ecology journal rankings 2012
249 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Ecology has 249 ranked journals in 2012. The median journal has an OJR of 0.81, below the world average of 1.00, unchanged on 2011; Q1 starts at OJR 1.34. The top three are Global Change Biology, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and The ISME Journal.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2012. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.
Journals whose main subfield sits in this category and that published at least 30 citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) in 2009–2011, the window the 2012 score is computed on.
The OpenJournalRank Indicator (OJR) is a free, publicly available metric of a journal’s field-normalized citation impact, computed from open OpenAlex citation data. It compares citations to a journal’s papers from the previous three years with the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and values can be compared across fields. It is computed with the NCI3 method.
The middle OJR among ranked journals in this category: half score higher, half lower. 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type.
The dot is this category, the solid tick is the median of all ranked journals and the dashed line is the world average.
Share of ranked journals in this category that are fully open access, so every paper is free to read. Hybrid journals, which sell subscriptions and open single papers for a fee, are not counted.
Median list price of the article processing charge, in US dollars, among ranked journals in this category that list a price above zero. Journals with a listed APC of $0 and journals with no known price are left out of this median. The At a glance table below gives a second median that includes the $0 prices.
Subfields of Environmental Science (11)
249 ranked journals
Filters
Rank is the position by OJR within the list on screen; 1 is the highest. | OJR is field-normalized 3-year citation impact: 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so values compare across fields. The badge is the journal’s quartile in this list. | Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is not field-normalized, so compare it only between journals of the same field. ▲ or ▼ is the change from 2011. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2009–2011, the window the 2012 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2009–2011 papers that are free to read in any open-access form. The green OA tag next to a title marks a fully open-access journal. | List price of the article processing charge in US dollars. “$0 listed” means the listed price is zero; a dash means no price is listed. | The line is the journal’s OJR from 2003 to 2012. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.33Q1 | 8.19 0.72 up from 2011 | 825 | 26% | $4,550 | ||
| 5.27Q1 | 4.79 0.10 down from 2011 | 208 | 14% | $3,310 | |||
3The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.14Q1 | 8.84 0.35 up from 2011 | 561 | 100% | $4,153 | ||
4Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 4.60Q1 | 5.86 0.64 up from 2011 | 171 | 60% | $3,500 | ||
5Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.28Q1 | 5.71 0.04 down from 2011 | 493 | 54% | $3,610 | ||
6Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentWiley · United States | 4.09Q1 | 4.33 0.71 up from 2011 | 352 | 32% | $3,970 | ||
7Journal of Animal EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.56Q1 | 4.96 0.14 up from 2011 | 432 | 58% | $3,610 | ||
8EcologyWiley · United States | 3.52Q1 | 4.61 0.21 down from 2011 | 1,271 | 30% | $3,970 | ||
9Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 3.48Q1 | 4.67 0.35 up from 2011 | 171 | 49% | $3,550 | ||
10Conservation BiologyWiley · United States | 3.41Q1 | 4.36 0.23 up from 2011 | 668 | 19% | $3,400 | ||
11Ecological ApplicationsWiley · United States | 3.38Q1 | 4.56 0.32 down from 2011 | 762 | 20% | $3,970 | ||
12Environmental MicrobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.32Q1 | 6.09 0.79 down from 2011 | 846 | 26% | $4,640 | ||
13Biological ConservationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.27Q1 | 4.65 0.29 down from 2011 | 1,046 | 16% | $3,830 | ||
14EcosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.90Q1 | 4.01 0.45 down from 2011 | 282 | 20% | $4,790 | ||
15Freshwater BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.87Q1 | 4.02 0.26 down from 2011 | 589 | 24% | $4,940 | ||
16FEMS Microbiology EcologyOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 2.69Q1 | 4.47 0.32 up from 2011 | 651 | 72% | $3,297 | ||
17EcosphereOAWiley · United States | 2.51Q1 | 3.09 1.09 up from 2011 | 156 | 100% | $2,430 | ||
18Journal of the North American Benthological SocietyUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 2.50Q1 | 3.81 0.18 up from 2011 | 255 | — | — | ||
19BacteriophageTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.49Q1 | 3.55no 2011 value | 33 | 100% | — | — | |
20Molecular Ecology ResourcesWiley · United Kingdom | 2.47Q1 | 8.67 4.72 up from 2011 | 749 | 23% | $5,250 | ||
21OecologiaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.41Q1 | 3.29 0.23 down from 2011 | 963 | 24% | $3,790 | ||
22BiogeochemistrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.40Q1 | 3.40 0.22 up from 2011 | 401 | 28% | $3,390 | ||
23Ecological EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.40Q1 | 3.17 0.52 down from 2011 | 705 | 10% | $3,910 | ||
24Microbial EcologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.37Q1 | 3.77 0.30 up from 2011 | 511 | 18% | $4,590 | ||
25Mammal ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.34Q1 | 3.24 0.12 down from 2011 | 67 | 9% | $4,100 | ||
26Earth Surface Processes and LandformsWiley · United Kingdom | 2.21Q1 | 3.03 0.10 up from 2011 | 531 | 20% | $5,330 | ||
27Coral ReefsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.15Q1 | 3.14 0.56 down from 2011 | 404 | 27% | $4,190 | ||
28Biodiversity and ConservationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.07Q1 | 2.77 0.31 down from 2011 | 651 | 18% | $3,990 | ||
29BMC EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.02Q1 | 2.96 0.49 down from 2011 | 80 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
30Biological InvasionsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.92Q1 | 3.00 0.21 up from 2011 | 741 | 15% | $3,690 | ||
31Environmental Microbiology ReportsWiley · United States | 1.89Q1 | 3.27 0.43 down from 2011 | 316 | 22% | $3,300 | ||
32The Rangeland JournalCSIRO Publishing · Australia | 1.88Q1 | 1.89 0.11 down from 2011 | 120 | 10% | — | ||
33Ecological InformaticsOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.85Q1 | 3.01 0.62 up from 2011 | 164 | 17% | $2,770 | ||
34Marine Ecology Progress SeriesInter-Research · Germany | 1.80Q1 | 2.95 0.38 down from 2011 | 1,701 | 97% | — | ||
35Estuaries and CoastsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.76Q1 | 2.52 0.02 down from 2011 | 326 | 17% | $2,490 | ||
36Endangered Species ResearchOAInter-Research · Germany | 1.75Q1 | 2.54 0.38 up from 2011 | 247 | 99% | $1,671 | ||
37Aquatic SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.74Q1 | 2.53 0.03 up from 2011 | 177 | 32% | $4,190 | ||
38Animal ConservationWiley · United Kingdom | 1.73Q1 | 2.13 0.58 down from 2011 | 289 | 25% | $4,430 | ||
39DiversityOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.72Q1 | 2.51 0.06 up from 2011 | 115 | 100% | $2,534 | ||
40Journal of Arid EnvironmentsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.67Q1 | 1.89 0.40 down from 2011 | 592 | 16% | $3,200 | ||
41Marine BiologySpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.66Q1 | 2.83 0.14 up from 2011 | 732 | 24% | $3,790 | ||
42Environmental Fluid MechanicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.64Q1 | 2.42 0.62 up from 2011 | 108 | 7% | $2,190 | ||
43Aquatic Microbial EcologyInter-Research Science Center · Germany | 1.59Q1 | 2.41 0.49 down from 2011 | 274 | 97% | — | ||
44Journal for Nature ConservationElsevier BV · Germany | 1.57Q1 | 1.99 0.09 up from 2011 | 120 | 22% | $2,890 | ||
45Rangeland Ecology & ManagementElsevier BV · United States | 1.56Q1 | 2.36 0.09 up from 2011 | 227 | 82% | $2,730 | ||
46Population EcologyWiley · Japan | 1.56Q1 | 1.78 0.32 down from 2011 | 171 | 11% | $3,000 | ||
47Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater EcosystemsWiley · United Kingdom | 1.55Q1 | 2.17no change | 220 | 15% | $4,730 | ||
48Journal of Experimental BiologyThe Company of Biologists · United Kingdom | 1.54Q1 | 2.95 0.18 up from 2011 | 1,873 | 40% | — | ||
49Journal of ZoologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.53Q1 | 2.21 0.22 up from 2011 | 354 | 18% | $4,430 | ||
50Restoration EcologyWiley · United States | 1.53Q1 | 2.09 0.10 down from 2011 | 377 | 11% | $3,300 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Ecology highlighted.
- Ecology249
- Global and Planetary Change155
- Water Science and Technology67
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis66
- Nature and Landscape Conservation59
- Pollution47
- Environmental Engineering40
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law39
- Waste Management and Disposal16
- Environmental Chemistry10
- Ecological Modeling4
Journals
Citations made in 2012. Corpus-wide, 75.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
67 additional Ecology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2009–2011, at least 80% of them with a subfield, and a positive world-average expectation. Ranks are within the whole category; filters hide rows without re-ranking. OJR excludes self-citations.
At a glance
Indicator year: 2012. Publication window: 2009–2011. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 249
- Window papers (baseline)
- 86,067 +19.3% from indicator year 2009
- Median OJR
- 0.811 +10.0% from indicator year 2009
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2009–2011 in all journals of the world-average baseline, including non-core journals, counted by each paper’s own subfield. They are not the papers of the ranked journals alone.
| Measure | Year series | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranked journals | 147 | 164 | 175 | 182 | 188 | 194 | 193 | 205 | 221 | 232 | 235 | 248 | 249 | 258 | 261 | 273 | 276 | 274 | 274 | 269 | 276 | 279 | 295 | 296 | 288 | 285 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 34,254 | 41,682 | 44,762 | 49,088 | 47,455 | 50,630 | 54,383 | 60,221 | 66,252 | 72,124 | 77,093 | 82,207 | 86,067 | 90,052 | 94,017 | 98,126 | 99,678 | 101,371 | 102,738 | 106,059 | 108,848 | 114,234 | 123,053 | 131,302 | 140,427 | 146,313 | |
| Median OJR | 0.59 | 0.6292 | 0.638 | 0.6289 | 0.61 | 0.643 | 0.73 | 0.736 | 0.75 | 0.737 | 0.76 | 0.809 | 0.811 | 0.84 | 0.805 | 0.80 | 0.79 | 0.810 | 0.77 | 0.72 | 0.71 | 0.68 | 0.62 | 0.642 | 0.65 | 0.67 |
How to read these rankings
- OJR, the OpenJournalRank Indicator
- A field-normalized 3-year citation impact, computed from OpenAlex with the NCI3 method. It divides the citations a journal’s papers received by the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and 2.00 means twice as many citations as expected. Because it is normalized, it can be compared across fields. Read the methodology
- Quartiles
- Q1 to Q4 split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. A journal’s quartile depends on the list: the same journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 among all journals.
- Impact factor (2-year)
- Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is easy to compare with familiar impact factors but is not field-normalized, so compare it only within a field. It is not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. Why it differs from the Journal Impact Factor
- Rank ranges
- Each rank in the latest year carries a likely range from 1,000 resamples of the journal’s papers. Where two journals’ ranges overlap, the data cannot tell them apart, so treat neighbouring ranks as ties.