Journal rankings · indicator year 2012
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2012
Life Sciences journal rankings 2012
2,484 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 2,484 ranked journals in 2012. The median journal has an OJR of 0.91, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.01 on 2011; Q1 starts at OJR 1.53. The top three are Nature Genetics, The Journal of Peasant Studies, and Pharmacological Reviews.
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.
Fields in Life Sciences (5)
Up to All journals2,484 ranked journals
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 12.22Q1 | 29.44 2.95 down from 2011 | 820 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
2The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 10.80Q1 | 8.37 3.11 up from 2011 | 134 | 23% | — | ||
3Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 10.21Q1 | 27.63 2.95 up from 2011 | 81 | 35% | $4,500 | ||
4CellCell Press · United States | 9.89Q1 | 25.42 0.85 up from 2011 | 1,664 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
5Ecology LettersWiley · United Kingdom | 8.82Q1 | 12.29 0.53 up from 2011 | 444 | 23% | $5,300 | ||
6NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.97Q1 | 12.72 0.98 up from 2011 | 9,699 | 31% | $12,690 | ||
7Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 6.65Q1 | 18.89 0.95 down from 2011 | 653 | 46% | $12,690 | ||
8Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 6.64Q1 | 18.30 0.35 up from 2011 | 559 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
9FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.33Q1 | 12.75 0.08 down from 2011 | 172 | 73% | $3,297 | ||
10Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.19Q1 | 17.66 2.37 up from 2011 | 704 | 48% | $12,690 | ||
11Psychological ReviewAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.16Q1 | 11.17 2.13 up from 2011 | 155 | 26% | — | ||
12Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.10Q1 | 12.49 2.61 up from 2011 | 606 | 99% | $6,990 | ||
13ImmunityCell Press · United States | 5.97Q1 | 17.34 1.38 down from 2011 | 635 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
14ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 5.62Q1 | 8.31 0.05 up from 2011 | 12,468 | 23% | — | ||
15Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.34Q1 | 7.17 0.19 up from 2011 | 216 | 19% | $3,900 | ||
16Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 5.28Q1 | 13.75 0.85 down from 2011 | 868 | 65% | $12,690 | ||
17NeuronCell Press · United States | 5.27Q1 | 15.53 1.54 up from 2011 | 1,219 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
18Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 12.75 0.81 up from 2011 | 89 | 13% | $5,530 | ||
19Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 5.19Q1 | 11.76 2.41 up from 2011 | 1,100 | 27% | $12,690 | ||
20The Plant CellOxford University Press · United States | 5.17Q1 | 10.20 0.37 up from 2011 | 985 | 99% | $4,934 | ||
21Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 5.17Q1 | 12.39 0.23 down from 2011 | 1,447 | 99% | $5,200 | ||
22Systematic BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 5.09Q1 | 8.87 0.25 up from 2011 | 270 | 49% | $2,166 | ||
23Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.05Q1 | 9.97 0.80 down from 2011 | 354 | 19% | $5,460 | ||
24Critical Reviews in Plant SciencesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.05Q1 | 6.57 0.32 up from 2011 | 72 | 13% | — | ||
25Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 4.89Q1 | 13.18 1.77 up from 2011 | 483 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
26Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNational Academy of Sciences · United States | 4.84Q1 | 11.23 0.05 down from 2011 | 12,345 | 100% | — | ||
27Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.80Q1 | 6.68 0.37 up from 2011 | 817 | 28% | $3,900 | ||
28Journal of Rural StudiesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.78Q1 | 3.10 0.85 up from 2011 | 139 | 24% | $4,090 | ||
29Cognitive PsychologyElsevier BV · United States | 4.75Q1 | 7.14 1.41 up from 2011 | 65 | 36% | $3,570 | ||
30Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.74Q1 | 14.45 0.89 up from 2011 | 1,145 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
31Molecular Aspects of MedicineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.71Q1 | 12.05 0.39 up from 2011 | 87 | 47% | $5,220 | ||
32Molecular Systems BiologyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.67Q1 | 13.59 3.74 up from 2011 | 319 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
33Journal of Agrarian ChangeWiley · United Kingdom | 4.66Q1 | 2.42 0.52 up from 2011 | 120 | 18% | $3,820 | ||
34Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.63Q1 | 12.34 1.94 up from 2011 | 64 | 52% | $5,410 | ||
35The Journal of Experimental MedicineRockefeller University Press · United States | 4.56Q1 | 13.56 1.18 up from 2011 | 909 | 94% | — | ||
36Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 4.55Q1 | 7.25 1.20 up from 2011 | 81 | 5% | $5,000 | ||
37Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.54Q1 | 10.38 0.11 down from 2011 | 495 | 49% | — | ||
38Frontiers in NeuroendocrinologyElsevier BV · United States | 4.52Q1 | 9.00 3.52 down from 2011 | 111 | 58% | $4,800 | ||
39PLANT PHYSIOLOGYOxford University Press · United States | 4.46Q1 | 8.38 0.34 up from 2011 | 1,612 | 85% | $3,851 | ||
40New PhytologistWiley · United Kingdom | 4.39Q1 | 6.62 0.02 up from 2011 | 1,233 | 54% | $5,790 | ||
41Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.38Q1 | 10.73 0.46 down from 2011 | 411 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
42PLoS BiologyOAPublic Library of Science · United States | 4.33Q1 | 10.63 0.66 up from 2011 | 854 | 100% | $5,500 | ||
43Progress in NeurobiologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.31Q1 | 11.04 0.13 down from 2011 | 249 | 48% | $5,190 | ||
44Developmental CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.27Q1 | 11.07 0.78 down from 2011 | 676 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
45The American Journal of Human GeneticsElsevier BV · United States | 4.27Q1 | 10.95 0.35 down from 2011 | 692 | 92% | $5,150 | ||
46Reviews in AquacultureWiley · United Kingdom | 4.25Q1 | 2.76 1.05 down from 2011 | 51 | 43% | $4,480 | ||
47Sociologia RuralisWiley · Netherlands | 4.23Q1 | 2.00 0.27 down from 2011 | 76 | 32% | $3,920 | ||
48The Plant JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 4.20Q1 | 7.82 0.18 up from 2011 | 1,074 | 57% | $5,450 | ||
49Nature Structural & Molecular BiologyNature Portfolio · United States | 4.19Q1 | 11.82 0.01 up from 2011 | 757 | 56% | $12,690 | ||
50Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 4.14Q1 | 10.49 5.12 up from 2011 | 979 | 81% | $3,418 |
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.
800 additional Life Sciences 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
- 2,484
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,451,151 +21.4% from indicator year 2009
- Median OJR
- 0.91 +4.8% from indicator year 2009
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
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 | 1,416 | 1,528 | 1,615 | 1,712 | 1,731 | 1,801 | 1,865 | 1,956 | 2,004 | 2,096 | 2,222 | 2,355 | 2,484 | 2,599 | 2,705 | 2,838 | 2,923 | 2,983 | 3,027 | 3,037 | 3,015 | 3,000 | 3,030 | 3,032 | 3,014 | 3,016 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 681,698 | 747,894 | 789,157 | 838,563 | 854,790 | 911,302 | 969,983 | 1,041,301 | 1,106,285 | 1,194,995 | 1,291,816 | 1,389,175 | 1,451,151 | 1,495,499 | 1,547,978 | 1,608,280 | 1,646,156 | 1,651,790 | 1,653,566 | 1,677,661 | 1,731,463 | 1,821,734 | 1,907,316 | 1,955,191 | 1,960,779 | 2,008,547 | |
| Median OJR | 0.59 | 0.62 | 0.63 | 0.69 | 0.71 | 0.74 | 0.778 | 0.810 | 0.813 | 0.869 | 0.8675 | 0.90 | 0.91 | 0.873 | 0.8678 | 0.83 | 0.8177 | 0.8180 | 0.80925 | 0.806 | 0.814 | 0.80931 | 0.80 | 0.784 | 0.77 | 0.79 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 2.5% | 2,489 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 3.276 per 1,000 | 2,252 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -7.1% | 2,737 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 99.1% | 3,016 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,258 | 1,900 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 25.1% | 2,917 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.3% | 3,016 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.79 | 2,965 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 26.6% | 3,016 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 42.9% | 3,011 journals |
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.