Journal rankings · indicator year 2013
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2013
Life Sciences journal rankings 2013
2,599 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 2,599 ranked journals in 2013. The median journal has an OJR of 0.87, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.04 on 2012; Q1 starts at OJR 1.47. The top three are The Journal of Peasant Studies, Nature Genetics, and Pharmacological Reviews.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2013. 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 2010–2012, the window the 2013 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 journals2,599 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 2012. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2010–2012, the window the 2013 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2010–2012 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 2004 to 2013. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 15.16Q1 | 9.13 0.76 up from 2012 | 155 | 7% | — | ||
2Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 10.69Q1 | 25.10 4.35 down from 2012 | 877 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
3Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 10.16Q1 | 22.61 5.02 down from 2012 | 91 | 47% | $4,500 | ||
4CellCell Press · United States | 10.04Q1 | 27.64 2.22 up from 2012 | 1,645 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
5Ecology LettersWiley · United Kingdom | 8.78Q1 | 12.29no change | 496 | 41% | $5,300 | ||
6NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.42Q1 | 13.94 1.22 up from 2012 | 9,755 | 30% | $12,690 | ||
7FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.39Q1 | 15.19 2.44 up from 2012 | 162 | 64% | $3,297 | ||
8Systematic BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 6.35Q1 | 10.09 1.22 up from 2012 | 284 | 38% | $2,166 | ||
9Psychological ReviewAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 6.22Q1 | 9.54 1.64 down from 2012 | 151 | 19% | — | ||
10Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 6.15Q1 | 15.53 3.36 down from 2012 | 689 | 46% | $12,690 | ||
11Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.02Q1 | 13.30 0.81 up from 2012 | 1,314 | 99% | $6,990 | ||
12ImmunityCell Press · United States | 5.96Q1 | 17.65 0.31 up from 2012 | 656 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
13Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 5.91Q1 | 15.98 2.32 down from 2012 | 584 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
14Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.77Q1 | 14.84 2.81 down from 2012 | 666 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
15Journal of Rural StudiesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.68Q1 | 3.82 0.72 up from 2012 | 166 | 27% | $4,090 | ||
16Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 5.57Q1 | 11.19 0.57 down from 2012 | 1,149 | 28% | $12,690 | ||
17NeuronCell Press · United States | 5.56Q1 | 15.94 0.40 up from 2012 | 1,283 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
18Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 5.54Q1 | 16.74 6.25 up from 2012 | 933 | 86% | $3,418 | ||
19ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 5.50Q1 | 8.50 0.19 up from 2012 | 12,089 | 20% | — | ||
20Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 5.47Q1 | 15.05 1.30 up from 2012 | 836 | 69% | $12,690 | ||
21Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.43Q1 | 13.09 0.34 up from 2012 | 87 | 28% | $5,530 | ||
22Journal of Agrarian ChangeWiley · United Kingdom | 5.37Q1 | 2.37 0.05 down from 2012 | 121 | 23% | $3,820 | ||
23Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.36Q1 | 10.65 0.68 up from 2012 | 352 | 17% | $5,460 | ||
24The Plant CellOxford University Press · United States | 5.32Q1 | 10.36 0.16 up from 2012 | 1,042 | 99% | $4,934 | ||
25Critical Reviews in Plant SciencesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 7.11 0.54 up from 2012 | 76 | 20% | — | ||
26Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 8.51 1.34 up from 2012 | 217 | 30% | $3,900 | ||
27Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 5.19Q1 | 15.13 1.95 up from 2012 | 551 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
28Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 5.06Q1 | 13.62 1.23 up from 2012 | 1,531 | 99% | $5,200 | ||
29Molecular Systems BiologyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.01Q1 | 15.85 2.26 up from 2012 | 285 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
30The Journal of Experimental MedicineRockefeller University Press · United States | 4.93Q1 | 14.72 1.16 up from 2012 | 780 | 93% | — | ||
31Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 4.87Q1 | 6.11 1.15 down from 2012 | 80 | 7% | $5,000 | ||
32Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.78Q1 | 13.14 1.31 down from 2012 | 1,172 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
33Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.76Q1 | 11.45 0.72 up from 2012 | 1,156 | 35% | $12,690 | ||
34Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.73Q1 | 7.24 0.56 up from 2012 | 772 | 40% | $3,900 | ||
35Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNational Academy of Sciences · United States | 4.73Q1 | 10.99 0.24 down from 2012 | 12,344 | 100% | — | ||
36Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.69Q1 | 10.93 0.20 up from 2012 | 429 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
37The Arabidopsis BookOAUnited States | 4.68Q1 | 12.80 5.80 up from 2012 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
38Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.66Q1 | 12.06 0.28 down from 2012 | 67 | 23% | $5,410 | ||
39PLANT PHYSIOLOGYOxford University Press · United States | 4.64Q1 | 8.53 0.15 up from 2012 | 1,549 | 85% | $3,851 | ||
40Molecular Aspects of MedicineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.57Q1 | 11.24 0.82 down from 2012 | 104 | 51% | $5,220 | ||
41Progress in NeurobiologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.52Q1 | 11.13 0.09 up from 2012 | 243 | 37% | $5,190 | ||
42Sociologia RuralisWiley · Netherlands | 4.49Q1 | 2.78 0.78 up from 2012 | 76 | 31% | $3,920 | ||
43The American Journal of Human GeneticsElsevier BV · United States | 4.34Q1 | 11.23 0.27 up from 2012 | 777 | 90% | $5,150 | ||
44Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.34Q1 | 10.36 0.03 down from 2012 | 505 | 48% | — | ||
45The Plant JournalWiley · United Kingdom | 4.32Q1 | 7.75 0.07 down from 2012 | 1,075 | 65% | $5,450 | ||
46Frontiers in NeuroendocrinologyElsevier BV · United States | 4.30Q1 | 9.68 0.68 up from 2012 | 96 | 41% | $4,800 | ||
47New PhytologistWiley · United Kingdom | 4.28Q1 | 6.69 0.07 up from 2012 | 1,290 | 58% | $5,790 | ||
48Plant Biotechnology JournalOAWiley · United Kingdom | 4.22Q1 | 7.26 0.22 down from 2012 | 294 | 66% | $4,320 | ||
49PLoS BiologyOAPublic Library of Science · United States | 4.16Q1 | 10.04 0.59 down from 2012 | 816 | 100% | $5,500 | ||
50TrAC Trends in Analytical ChemistryElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.08Q1 | 6.35 0.19 up from 2012 | 496 | 10% | $5,150 |
Citations made in 2013. Corpus-wide, 76.9% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
902 additional Life Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2010–2012, 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: 2013. Publication window: 2010–2012. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 2,599
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,495,499 +15.8% from indicator year 2010
- Median OJR
- 0.873 +0.7% from indicator year 2010
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2010–2012 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.