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
Soil Science journal rankings 2016
37 ranked journals · Subfield in Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Soil Science has 37 ranked journals in 2016. The median OJR rose 0.11 on 2015 to 1.53, above the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 2.27. The top three are SOIL, Land Degradation and Development, and Soil Biology and Biochemistry.
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 Agricultural and Biological Sciences (11)
37 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1SOILOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 8.05Q1 | 10.86no 2015 value | 49 | 100% | $1,110 | — | |
2Land Degradation and DevelopmentWiley · United Kingdom | 3.93Q1 | 6.35 0.21 down from 2015 | 257 | 31% | $5,230 | ||
3Soil Biology and BiochemistryElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.57Q1 | 5.63 1.02 up from 2015 | 1,004 | 46% | $4,950 | ||
4Agriculture Ecosystems & EnvironmentElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.23Q1 | 4.34 0.27 up from 2015 | 978 | 39% | $4,190 | ||
5Soil and Tillage ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.89Q1 | 3.54 0.52 up from 2015 | 504 | 22% | $4,570 | ||
6European Journal of Soil ScienceWiley · United Kingdom | 2.66Q1 | 3.67 0.70 down from 2015 | 279 | 15% | $4,490 | ||
7GeodermaOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.49Q1 | 4.25 0.60 up from 2015 | 970 | 31% | $3,320 | ||
8Biology and Fertility of SoilsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.44Q1 | 4.16 1.11 up from 2015 | 307 | 34% | $4,790 | ||
9CATENAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.30Q1 | 3.49 0.38 up from 2015 | 759 | 25% | $3,680 | ||
10Applied Soil EcologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.27Q1 | 2.91 0.02 up from 2015 | 593 | 23% | $4,320 | ||
11Agricultural Water ManagementOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.24Q2 | 3.29 0.28 up from 2015 | 771 | 28% | $3,070 | ||
12European Journal of Soil BiologyElsevier BV · France | 1.95Q2 | 2.88 0.47 up from 2015 | 208 | 18% | $3,800 | ||
13Geoderma RegionalElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.77Q2 | 2.66 0.76 up from 2015 | 68 | 19% | $2,310 | ||
14Irrigation ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.76Q2 | 2.02 0.24 down from 2015 | 88 | 16% | $3,990 | ||
15Nutrient Cycling in AgroecosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.75Q2 | 2.30 0.50 up from 2015 | 205 | 19% | $3,890 | ||
16Archives of Agronomy and Soil ScienceOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.73Q2 | 2.81 0.93 up from 2015 | 327 | 7% | — | ||
17PedobiologiaElsevier BV · Germany | 1.56Q2 | 2.35 0.26 up from 2015 | 96 | 24% | $3,260 | ||
18Soil Science Society of America JournalWiley · United States | 1.55Q2 | 2.12 0.13 down from 2015 | 630 | 25% | $2,020 | ||
19Soil Use and ManagementWiley · United Kingdom | 1.53Q2 | 2.05 0.35 down from 2015 | 209 | 15% | $4,120 | ||
20Soil ResearchCSIRO Publishing · Australia | 1.48Q3 | 2.02 0.11 down from 2015 | 248 | 31% | — | ||
21Journal of Soils and SedimentsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.46Q3 | 2.40 0.03 down from 2015 | 685 | 18% | $3,890 | ||
22Journal of Soil and Water ConservationSoil and Water Conservation Society · United States | 1.44Q3 | 2.54 0.62 up from 2015 | 227 | 36% | — | ||
23PedosphereElsevier BV · China | 1.40Q3 | 2.26 0.65 up from 2015 | 258 | 6% | $3,000 | ||
24International Soil and Water Conservation ResearchOAElsevier BV · China | 1.31Q3 | 1.82 1.29 up from 2015 | 93 | 100% | $1,200 | ||
25Applied and Environmental Soil ScienceOAHindawi Publishing Corporation · United Kingdom | 1.30Q3 | 1.83 0.17 up from 2015 | 95 | 100% | $1,000 | ||
26Canadian Journal of Soil ScienceCanadian Science Publishing · Canada | 1.20Q3 | 1.55 0.28 up from 2015 | 140 | 53% | — | ||
27International Journal Of Recycling of Organic Waste in AgricultureOASpringer Nature · Iran | 1.05Q3 | 1.48 0.02 down from 2015 | 90 | 100% | — | ||
28Compost Science & UtilizationTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.78Q3 | 1.20 0.35 up from 2015 | 76 | 9% | — | ||
29Soil and Water ResearchOAÚstav zemědělských a potravinářských informací · Czechia | 0.77Q4 | 1.19 0.29 up from 2015 | 85 | 100% | $609 | ||
30Soil ScienceLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 0.75Q4 | 1.00 0.02 down from 2015 | 168 | 7% | — | ||
31Revista Brasileira de Ciência do SoloOASociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo · Brazil | 0.74Q4 | 1.20 0.23 up from 2015 | 538 | 100% | $100 | ||
32Irrigation and DrainageWiley · United Kingdom | 0.69Q4 | 1.06 0.31 up from 2015 | 239 | 17% | $3,450 | ||
33Open Journal of Soil ScienceOAScientific Research Publishing · United States | 0.65Q4 | 0.96 0.13 up from 2015 | 126 | 100% | — | ||
34Irrigation & Drainage Systems EngineeringOMICS Publishing Group · United States | 0.52Q4 | 0.37 0.29 down from 2015 | 72 | 100% | — | ||
35Soil HorizonsWiley · United States | 0.36Q4 | 0.39 0.18 down from 2015 | 156 | — | — | ||
36Canadian Biosystems EngineeringCanada | 0.13Q4 | 0.35 0.03 down from 2015 | 32 | 27% | — | ||
37Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering BOADavid Publishing Company · United States | 0.08Q4 | 0.10 0.23 down from 2015 | 77 | 98% | — |
Subfields of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, with Soil Science highlighted.
- Plant Science570
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics144
- Food Science132
- Insect Science56
- Animal Science and Zoology51
- Aquatic Science39
- Agronomy and Crop Science38
- Soil Science37
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences30
- Forestry1
- Horticulture0
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.
6 additional Soil Science 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
- 37
- Window papers (baseline)
- 35,237 +32.8% from indicator year 2013
- Median OJR
- 1.53 -7.7% from indicator year 2013
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
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 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 33 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 39 | 39 | 42 | 43 | 41 | 42 | 40 | 39 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 7,748 | 9,099 | 10,240 | 11,138 | 11,116 | 11,430 | 12,496 | 14,005 | 15,614 | 17,540 | 20,048 | 22,776 | 24,823 | 26,542 | 28,955 | 32,598 | 35,237 | 37,010 | 38,759 | 41,955 | 45,293 | 48,749 | 50,177 | 51,294 | 52,438 | 56,582 | |
| Median OJR | 1.13 | 1.23 | 1.255 | 1.34 | 1.31 | 1.245 | 1.238 | 1.358 | 1.433 | 1.428 | 1.59 | 1.556 | 1.64 | 1.66 | 1.557 | 1.42 | 1.53 | 1.39 | 1.33 | 1.253 | 1.28 | 1.20 | 1.356 | 1.247 | 1.243 | 1.29 |
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.