Journal rankings · indicator year 2016
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2016
Ecology journal rankings 2016
276 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Ecology has 276 ranked journals in 2016. The median journal has an OJR of 0.79, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2015; Q1 starts at OJR 1.31. The top three are ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Global Change Biology, and The ISME Journal.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2016. 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 2013–2015, the window the 2016 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)
276 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 2015. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2013–2015, the window the 2016 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2013–2015 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 2007 to 2016. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.08Q1 | 8.38 2.33 up from 2015 | 512 | 30% | $3,310 | |||
2Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 5.45Q1 | 9.06 0.53 up from 2015 | 1,066 | 47% | $4,550 | ||
3The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 5.28Q1 | 9.96 0.57 up from 2015 | 720 | 100% | $4,153 | ||
4Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentWiley · United States | 5.11Q1 | 6.63 0.53 down from 2015 | 321 | 64% | $3,970 | ||
5Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.97Q1 | 5.35 0.24 up from 2015 | 81 | 47% | $5,240 | ||
6Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 4.31Q1 | 6.34 0.20 down from 2015 | 472 | 66% | $3,500 | ||
7Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.00Q1 | 6.23 0.03 down from 2015 | 563 | 65% | $3,610 | ||
8Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 3.88Q1 | 5.33 0.28 down from 2015 | 217 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
9Conservation BiologyWiley · United States | 3.30Q1 | 5.29 1.07 up from 2015 | 646 | 38% | $3,400 | ||
10EcologyWiley · United States | 3.17Q1 | 4.54 0.04 down from 2015 | 1,092 | 41% | $3,970 | ||
11EcosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 3.11Q1 | 5.14 0.88 up from 2015 | 311 | 30% | $4,790 | ||
12Journal of Animal EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.06Q1 | 4.40 0.88 down from 2015 | 453 | 64% | $3,610 | ||
13Molecular Ecology ResourcesWiley · United Kingdom | 3.03Q1 | 7.23 1.88 up from 2015 | 438 | 34% | $5,250 | ||
14Biological ConservationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.00Q1 | 5.02 0.16 up from 2015 | 1,105 | 38% | $3,830 | ||
15Movement EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.87Q1 | 4.41 0.32 down from 2015 | 82 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
16Ecological ApplicationsWiley · United States | 2.80Q1 | 4.06 0.46 down from 2015 | 524 | 38% | $3,970 | ||
17Earth Surface Processes and LandformsWiley · United Kingdom | 2.66Q1 | 4.04 0.43 up from 2015 | 478 | 43% | $5,330 | ||
18Environmental MicrobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.63Q1 | 5.08 0.02 up from 2015 | 971 | 38% | $4,640 | ||
19BiogeochemistrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.62Q1 | 4.18 0.16 up from 2015 | 341 | 37% | $3,390 | ||
20FEMS Microbiology EcologyOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 2.51Q1 | 4.44 0.15 up from 2015 | 571 | 77% | $3,297 | ||
21Earth Surface DynamicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.49Q1 | 3.70 1.01 up from 2015 | 80 | 100% | $1,682 | ||
22Conservation PhysiologyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 2.43Q1 | 3.84 0.09 down from 2015 | 158 | 100% | $2,734 | ||
23Mammal ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.41Q1 | 3.36 0.31 down from 2015 | 57 | 39% | $4,100 | ||
24OecologiaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.35Q1 | 3.48 0.22 up from 2015 | 945 | 26% | $3,790 | ||
25EcosphereOAWiley · United States | 2.31Q1 | 3.61 0.51 up from 2015 | 615 | 100% | $2,430 | ||
26BMC EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.28Q1 | 3.68 0.20 up from 2015 | 103 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
27Royal Society Open ScienceOARoyal Society · United Kingdom | 2.14Q1 | 3.20 0.22 up from 2015 | 303 | 100% | $1,471 | ||
28Freshwater BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.12Q1 | 3.74 0.29 up from 2015 | 592 | 23% | $4,940 | ||
29Microbial EcologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.10Q1 | 3.72 0.07 up from 2015 | 551 | 27% | $4,590 | ||
30Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United Kingdom | 2.05Q1 | 3.19 0.03 up from 2015 | 1,321 | 100% | $2,570 | ||
31Ecological EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.04Q1 | 3.26 0.09 down from 2015 | 1,507 | 19% | $3,910 | ||
32Biodiversity and ConservationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.02Q1 | 3.03 0.25 up from 2015 | 587 | 32% | $3,990 | ||
33International Journal for Parasitology Parasites and WildlifeOAElsevier BV · Australia | 1.98Q1 | 3.61 0.58 up from 2015 | 129 | 100% | $1,930 | ||
34Animal BiotelemetryOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.96Q1 | 2.29 1.23 down from 2015 | 92 | 100% | $2,390 | ||
35Coral ReefsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.91Q1 | 3.31 0.65 up from 2015 | 378 | 31% | $4,190 | ||
36Biological InvasionsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.87Q1 | 3.09 0.25 up from 2015 | 640 | 31% | $3,690 | ||
37Aquatic SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.86Q1 | 2.99 0.12 up from 2015 | 176 | 35% | $4,190 | ||
38Integrative and Comparative BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 1.84Q1 | 2.76 0.67 down from 2015 | 346 | 34% | $4,243 | ||
39Frontiers in Ecology and EvolutionOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.79Q1 | 3.06 0.01 up from 2015 | 241 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
40Restoration EcologyWiley · United States | 1.77Q1 | 2.31 0.34 down from 2015 | 311 | 27% | $3,300 | ||
41Global Ecology and ConservationOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.73Q1 | 2.55 0.63 up from 2015 | 194 | 100% | $2,980 | ||
42Environmental Microbiology ReportsWiley · United States | 1.71Q1 | 3.06 0.05 up from 2015 | 324 | 23% | $3,300 | ||
43Aquatic InvasionsOARegional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre (REABIC) · Finland | 1.67Q1 | 3.15 0.32 up from 2015 | 133 | 100% | $1,024 | ||
44Freshwater ScienceUniversity of Chicago Press · United States | 1.66Q1 | 2.69 0.39 down from 2015 | 374 | 25% | — | ||
45Journal for Nature ConservationElsevier BV · Germany | 1.65Q1 | 2.26 0.33 down from 2015 | 198 | 23% | $2,890 | ||
46Polar ResearchOAWiley · United Kingdom | 1.58Q1 | 2.58 0.25 up from 2015 | 142 | 100% | $852 | ||
47Journal of Arid EnvironmentsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.57Q1 | 2.23 0.19 up from 2015 | 536 | 28% | $3,200 | ||
48Journal of Agricultural and Environmental EthicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.56Q1 | 1.64 0.16 up from 2015 | 148 | 31% | $3,090 | ||
49Ecological InformaticsOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.56Q1 | 2.33 0.08 down from 2015 | 275 | 24% | $2,770 | ||
50Animal ConservationWiley · United Kingdom | 1.54Q1 | 2.65 0.02 up from 2015 | 232 | 29% | $4,430 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Ecology highlighted.
- Ecology276
- Global and Planetary Change193
- Water Science and Technology95
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis76
- Nature and Landscape Conservation62
- Pollution56
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law45
- Environmental Engineering42
- Waste Management and Disposal19
- Environmental Chemistry10
- Ecological Modeling5
Journals
Citations made in 2016. Corpus-wide, 77.2% 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 2013–2015, 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: 2016. Publication window: 2013–2015. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 276
- Window papers (baseline)
- 99,678 +10.7% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 0.79 -6.5% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2013–2015 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.