Journal rankings · indicator year 2017
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2017
Life Sciences journal rankings 2017
2,983 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 2,983 ranked journals in 2017. The median journal has an OJR of 0.82, below the world average of 1.00, unchanged on 2016; Q1 starts at OJR 1.37. The top three are Cell, Nature Genetics, and Pharmacological Reviews.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2017. 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 2014–2016, the window the 2017 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 journals2,983 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 2016. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2014–2016, the window the 2017 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2014–2016 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 2008 to 2017. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 9.32Q1 | 24.31 0.22 up from 2016 | 2,029 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
2Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 9.26Q1 | 23.24 0.20 down from 2016 | 835 | 66% | $12,690 | ||
3Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 8.20Q1 | 20.93 1.07 up from 2016 | 81 | 61% | $4,500 | ||
4The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.54Q1 | 4.06 1.29 down from 2016 | 237 | 28% | — | ||
5NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.21Q1 | 14.01 0.96 up from 2016 | 9,427 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
6Ecology LettersWiley · United Kingdom | 6.90Q1 | 10.27 1.08 down from 2016 | 435 | 33% | $5,300 | ||
7Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 6.53Q1 | 18.73 2.09 up from 2016 | 822 | 66% | $12,690 | ||
8FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.38Q1 | 13.75 0.86 down from 2016 | 136 | 84% | $3,297 | ||
9Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 6.31Q1 | 18.97 1.02 up from 2016 | 113 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
10Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 6.29Q1 | 13.13 2.70 down from 2016 | 1,079 | 33% | $12,690 | ||
11Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 6.28Q1 | 14.06 1.37 up from 2016 | 773 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
12ImmunityCell Press · United States | 6.21Q1 | 16.52 1.71 down from 2016 | 759 | 95% | $10,400 | ||
13Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 6.12Q1 | 7.37 1.22 down from 2016 | 218 | 47% | $3,900 | ||
14Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.01Q1 | 17.25 0.70 up from 2016 | 484 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
15Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 14.42 0.07 up from 2016 | 9,562 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
16Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 5.74Q1 | 16.47 1.70 up from 2016 | 737 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
17Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 5.73Q1 | 13.49 2.93 up from 2016 | 61 | 17% | $5,050 | ||
18Studies in MycologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.67Q1 | 13.16 3.31 down from 2016 | 46 | 100% | $1,430 | ||
19Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 5.59Q1 | 9.78 1.12 up from 2016 | 178 | 16% | $5,000 | ||
20Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 5.52Q1 | 14.92 0.13 down from 2016 | 630 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
21Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 5.51Q1 | 13.67 1.31 up from 2016 | 597 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
22Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.33Q1 | 14.06 1.69 up from 2016 | 880 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
23Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.28Q1 | 13.24 1.11 up from 2016 | 325 | 26% | $5,460 | ||
24MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 11.85 0.63 up from 2016 | 181 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
25Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.98Q1 | 14.04 1.77 up from 2016 | 501 | 48% | — | ||
26Progress in NeurobiologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 13.77 0.33 up from 2016 | 161 | 39% | $5,190 | ||
27Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 10.08no 2016 value | 264 | 62% | $12,690 | — | |
28Fungal DiversitySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 4.92Q1 | 15.21 1.30 up from 2016 | 99 | 20% | $3,490 | ||
29Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.79Q1 | 7.72 0.67 up from 2016 | 601 | 45% | $3,900 | ||
30Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 4.75Q1 | 12.62 0.28 up from 2016 | 1,426 | 100% | $5,200 | ||
31Trends in Food Science & TechnologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.74Q1 | 8.60 1.09 up from 2016 | 402 | 21% | $5,440 | ||
32NeuronCell Press · United States | 4.73Q1 | 12.66 0.57 down from 2016 | 1,591 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
33Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 4.68Q1 | 13.48 0.95 up from 2016 | 762 | 42% | $12,690 | ||
34Critical Reviews in Plant SciencesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.67Q1 | 4.16 4.82 down from 2016 | 60 | 30% | — | ||
35Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.62Q1 | 12.27 0.45 up from 2016 | 1,001 | 44% | — | ||
36Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.48Q1 | 13.04 0.96 up from 2016 | 66 | 38% | $5,410 | ||
37Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.43Q1 | 13.30 1.01 down from 2016 | 1,189 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
38ACS Central ScienceOAAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 4.39Q1 | 11.02 3.33 up from 2016 | 177 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
39Journal of Rural StudiesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.37Q1 | 3.59 0.09 up from 2016 | 390 | 47% | $4,090 | ||
40ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.31Q1 | 7.66 0.22 down from 2016 | 14,127 | 19% | — | ||
41Frontiers in NeuroendocrinologyElsevier BV · United States | 4.31Q1 | 7.26 4.21 down from 2016 | 94 | 37% | $4,800 | ||
42Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNational Academy of Sciences · United States | 4.27Q1 | 9.85 0.28 down from 2016 | 11,571 | 99% | — | ||
43Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.26Q1 | 10.54 0.28 down from 2016 | 1,277 | 37% | $12,690 | ||
44Microbial Ecology in Health and DiseaseTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.26Q1 | 10.84 2.07 up from 2016 | 55 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
45Agronomy for Sustainable DevelopmentSpringer Science+Business Media · France | 4.22Q1 | 5.84 0.53 up from 2016 | 203 | 97% | $2,990 | ||
46Science Translational MedicineAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.21Q1 | 10.02 0.15 up from 2016 | 1,439 | 40% | — | ||
47SOILOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 4.12Q1 | 6.34 4.52 down from 2016 | 100 | 100% | $1,110 | ||
48Psychological ReviewAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.06Q1 | 7.20 0.55 down from 2016 | 108 | 59% | — | ||
49The Plant CellOxford University Press · United States | 4.03Q1 | 8.00 0.46 down from 2016 | 853 | 100% | $4,934 | ||
50New PhytologistWiley · United Kingdom | 3.98Q1 | 7.17 0.12 down from 2016 | 1,622 | 66% | $5,790 |
Citations made in 2017. Corpus-wide, 77.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
959 additional Life Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2014–2016, 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: 2017. Publication window: 2014–2016. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 2,983
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,651,790 +6.7% from indicator year 2014
- Median OJR
- 0.8180 -5.7% from indicator year 2014
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2014–2016 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.