Journal rankings · indicator year 2015
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2015
Ecology journal rankings 2015
273 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Ecology has 273 ranked journals in 2015. The median journal has an OJR of 0.80, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2014; Q1 starts at OJR 1.41. The top three are Global Change Biology, The ISME Journal, and Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2015. 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 2012–2014, the window the 2015 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)
273 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 2014. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2012–2014, the window the 2015 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2012–2014 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 2006 to 2015. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.36Q1 | 8.53 0.38 up from 2014 | 1,000 | 38% | $4,550 | ||
2The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.36Q1 | 9.39 0.01 up from 2014 | 665 | 100% | $4,153 | ||
3Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 5.26Q1 | 6.55 1.14 down from 2014 | 403 | 60% | $3,500 | ||
4Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.85Q1 | 5.11 0.32 up from 2014 | 98 | 44% | $5,240 | ||
5Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentWiley · United States | 4.78Q1 | 7.16 1.24 up from 2014 | 321 | 39% | $3,970 | ||
| 4.73Q1 | 6.05 1.38 up from 2014 | 461 | 25% | $3,310 | |||
7Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 4.14Q1 | 5.61 0.10 up from 2014 | 229 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
8Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.12Q1 | 6.26 0.62 up from 2014 | 505 | 67% | $3,610 | ||
9EcologyWiley · United States | 3.53Q1 | 4.58 0.22 down from 2014 | 1,051 | 32% | $3,970 | ||
10Journal of Animal EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.48Q1 | 5.28 0.46 up from 2014 | 431 | 63% | $3,610 | ||
11Biological ConservationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.16Q1 | 4.86 0.05 up from 2014 | 1,047 | 26% | $3,830 | ||
12Conservation BiologyWiley · United States | 2.97Q1 | 4.22 0.03 down from 2014 | 605 | 33% | $3,400 | ||
13Ecological ApplicationsWiley · United States | 2.95Q1 | 4.52 0.17 up from 2014 | 541 | 19% | $3,970 | ||
14EcosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.93Q1 | 4.27 0.63 down from 2014 | 309 | 23% | $4,790 | ||
15Movement EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.86Q1 | 4.73 0.63 down from 2014 | 44 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
16Environmental MicrobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.76Q1 | 5.06 0.71 down from 2014 | 924 | 35% | $4,640 | ||
17Earth Surface Processes and LandformsWiley · United Kingdom | 2.63Q1 | 3.61 0.10 up from 2014 | 497 | 27% | $5,330 | ||
18BiogeochemistrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.59Q1 | 4.02 0.71 up from 2014 | 349 | 28% | $3,390 | ||
19Conservation PhysiologyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.55Q1 | 3.93 1.07 down from 2014 | 95 | 100% | $2,734 | ||
20Mammal ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.52Q1 | 3.67 0.25 down from 2014 | 51 | 18% | $4,100 | ||
21FEMS Microbiology EcologyOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 2.43Q1 | 4.29 0.20 up from 2014 | 666 | 73% | $3,297 | ||
22Molecular Ecology ResourcesWiley · United Kingdom | 2.37Q1 | 5.35 1.10 up from 2014 | 428 | 43% | $5,250 | ||
23OecologiaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.35Q1 | 3.26 0.17 down from 2014 | 943 | 25% | $3,790 | ||
24Earth Surface DynamicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.33Q1 | 2.69 0.19 up from 2014 | 45 | 100% | $1,682 | ||
25Animal BiotelemetryOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.20Q1 | 3.53 0.52 down from 2014 | 38 | 100% | $2,390 | ||
26Freshwater BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.19Q1 | 3.45 0.32 up from 2014 | 640 | 22% | $4,940 | ||
27Ecological EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.16Q1 | 3.35 0.32 down from 2014 | 1,321 | 13% | $3,910 | ||
28EcosphereOAWiley · United States | 2.16Q1 | 3.10 0.20 down from 2014 | 440 | 100% | $2,430 | ||
29Royal Society Open ScienceOARoyal Society · United Kingdom | 2.12Q1 | 2.98no 2014 value | 52 | 100% | $1,471 | — | |
30Microbial EcologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.07Q1 | 3.65 0.23 up from 2014 | 548 | 23% | $4,590 | ||
31Frontiers in Ecology and EvolutionOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 2.02Q1 | 3.06 1.81 up from 2014 | 88 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
32Aquatic SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 2.01Q1 | 2.87 0.19 up from 2014 | 144 | 27% | $4,190 | ||
33BMC EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.00Q1 | 3.48 0.17 up from 2014 | 109 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
34Biodiversity and ConservationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.00Q1 | 2.78 0.22 down from 2014 | 619 | 22% | $3,990 | ||
35Avian Biology ResearchSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.96Q1 | 3.16 2.16 up from 2014 | 122 | 5% | $4,150 | ||
36Nature ConservationOAPensoft Publishers · Bulgaria | 1.94Q1 | 2.46 0.62 down from 2014 | 37 | 100% | $862 | ||
37Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United Kingdom | 1.92Q1 | 3.17 0.13 up from 2014 | 1,099 | 100% | $2,570 | ||
38Journal of Avian BiologyOAWiley · Denmark | 1.83Q1 | 2.91 0.37 up from 2014 | 237 | 28% | $2,860 | ||
39Biological InvasionsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.82Q1 | 2.84 0.03 up from 2014 | 663 | 28% | $3,690 | ||
40Environmental Microbiology ReportsWiley · United States | 1.82Q1 | 3.01 0.18 down from 2014 | 311 | 32% | $3,300 | ||
41Avian Conservation and EcologyOAResilience Alliance · Canada | 1.79Q1 | 2.91 0.46 up from 2014 | 49 | 100% | $800 | ||
42Freshwater ScienceUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 1.78Q1 | 3.08 0.40 up from 2014 | 339 | 33% | — | ||
43Journal for Nature ConservationElsevier BV · Germany | 1.73Q1 | 2.59 0.07 up from 2014 | 176 | 24% | $2,890 | ||
44Animal ConservationWiley · United Kingdom | 1.73Q1 | 2.63 0.10 up from 2014 | 273 | 29% | $4,430 | ||
45Integrative and Comparative BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 1.68Q1 | 3.43 0.81 up from 2014 | 349 | 32% | $4,243 | ||
46The AukOxford University Press · United States | 1.63Q1 | 2.39 0.57 up from 2014 | 300 | 78% | — | ||
47Aquatic InvasionsOARegional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre (REABIC) · Finland | 1.61Q1 | 2.82 0.35 up from 2014 | 154 | 100% | $1,024 | ||
48Restoration EcologyWiley · United States | 1.59Q1 | 2.66 0.25 up from 2014 | 257 | 19% | $3,300 | ||
49Coral ReefsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.59Q1 | 2.65 0.55 down from 2014 | 379 | 26% | $4,190 | ||
50ParasitologyOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.57Q1 | 2.96 0.37 up from 2014 | 677 | 38% | $3,550 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Ecology highlighted.
- Ecology273
- Global and Planetary Change186
- Water Science and Technology87
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis77
- Nature and Landscape Conservation61
- Pollution53
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law43
- Environmental Engineering42
- Waste Management and Disposal17
- Environmental Chemistry10
- Ecological Modeling5
Journals
Citations made in 2015. Corpus-wide, 78.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
64 additional Ecology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2012–2014, 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: 2015. Publication window: 2012–2014. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 273
- Window papers (baseline)
- 98,126 +14.0% from indicator year 2012
- Median OJR
- 0.80 -1.9% from indicator year 2012
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2012–2014 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.