Journal rankings · indicator year 2017
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2017
Molecular Biology journal rankings 2017
1,133 ranked journals · Subfield in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Molecular Biology has 1,133 ranked journals in 2017. The median journal has an OJR of 0.94, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.04 on 2016; Q1 starts at OJR 1.52. 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.
Subfields of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (14)
1,133 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 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 | ||
4NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.21Q1 | 14.01 0.96 up from 2016 | 9,427 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
5FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.38Q1 | 13.75 0.86 down from 2016 | 136 | 84% | $3,297 | ||
6Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 6.31Q1 | 18.97 1.02 up from 2016 | 113 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
7Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 6.29Q1 | 13.13 2.70 down from 2016 | 1,079 | 33% | $12,690 | ||
8Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 6.28Q1 | 14.06 1.37 up from 2016 | 773 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
9Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.01Q1 | 17.25 0.70 up from 2016 | 484 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
10Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 14.42 0.07 up from 2016 | 9,562 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
11Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 5.74Q1 | 16.47 1.70 up from 2016 | 737 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
12Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 5.73Q1 | 13.49 2.93 up from 2016 | 61 | 17% | $5,050 | ||
13Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 5.52Q1 | 14.92 0.13 down from 2016 | 630 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
14Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 5.51Q1 | 13.67 1.31 up from 2016 | 597 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
15Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.33Q1 | 14.06 1.69 up from 2016 | 880 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
16Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.28Q1 | 13.24 1.11 up from 2016 | 325 | 26% | $5,460 | ||
17MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.25Q1 | 11.85 0.63 up from 2016 | 181 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
18Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.98Q1 | 14.04 1.77 up from 2016 | 501 | 48% | — | ||
19Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 10.08no 2016 value | 264 | 62% | $12,690 | — | |
20Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 4.75Q1 | 12.62 0.28 up from 2016 | 1,426 | 100% | $5,200 | ||
21Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.62Q1 | 12.27 0.45 up from 2016 | 1,001 | 44% | — | ||
22Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.48Q1 | 13.04 0.96 up from 2016 | 66 | 38% | $5,410 | ||
23Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.43Q1 | 13.30 1.01 down from 2016 | 1,189 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
24ACS Central ScienceOAAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 4.39Q1 | 11.02 3.33 up from 2016 | 177 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
25ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.31Q1 | 7.66 0.22 down from 2016 | 14,127 | 19% | — | ||
26Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNational Academy of Sciences · United States | 4.27Q1 | 9.85 0.28 down from 2016 | 11,571 | 99% | — | ||
27Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.26Q1 | 10.54 0.28 down from 2016 | 1,277 | 37% | $12,690 | ||
28Science Translational MedicineAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.21Q1 | 10.02 0.15 up from 2016 | 1,439 | 40% | — | ||
29Pharmacology & TherapeuticsElsevier BV · United States | 3.97Q1 | 9.27 1.78 down from 2016 | 356 | 55% | $5,660 | ||
30Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 3.88Q1 | 10.81 4.91 up from 2016 | 70 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
31PLoS BiologyOAPublic Library of Science · United States | 3.86Q1 | 9.34 0.63 up from 2016 | 798 | 100% | $5,500 | ||
32Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.73Q1 | 7.02 2.67 down from 2016 | 122 | 37% | $5,530 | ||
33Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 3.72Q1 | 9.08 3.48 up from 2016 | 1,039 | 88% | $3,418 | ||
34Nucleic Acids ResearchOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.58Q1 | 10.72 0.61 up from 2016 | 4,253 | 100% | $3,992 | ||
35EMBO Molecular MedicineOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.57Q1 | 9.74 0.44 up from 2016 | 355 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
36TrAC Trends in Analytical ChemistryElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.56Q1 | 7.97 0.64 up from 2016 | 669 | 23% | $5,150 | ||
37mSystemsOAAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 3.54Q1 | 7.52 1.52 up from 2016 | 62 | 100% | $3,500 | ||
38Nature Structural & Molecular BiologyNature Portfolio · United States | 3.53Q1 | 10.81 0.86 up from 2016 | 561 | 58% | $12,690 | ||
39Physiological ReviewsAmerican Physiological Society · United States | 3.52Q1 | 28.04 5.05 down from 2016 | 111 | 63% | — | ||
40Molecular Aspects of MedicineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.44Q1 | 7.49 0.63 down from 2016 | 87 | 50% | $5,220 | ||
41Nature Chemical BiologyNature Portfolio · United States | 3.42Q1 | 9.29 0.32 up from 2016 | 765 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
42mBioOAAmerican Society for Microbiology · United States | 3.41Q1 | 7.61 0.49 down from 2016 | 1,241 | 100% | $3,900 | ||
43eLifeOAeLife Sciences Publications Ltd · United Kingdom | 3.34Q1 | 8.75 0.16 down from 2016 | 2,799 | 100% | $2,500 | ||
44GigaScienceOAUniversity of Oxford · United Kingdom | 3.33Q1 | 7.64 0.89 down from 2016 | 172 | 100% | $2,638 | ||
45Cell ReportsOACell Press · United States | 3.31Q1 | 9.17 0.58 down from 2016 | 2,618 | 100% | $5,620 | ||
46Molecular Systems BiologyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.30Q1 | 8.89 0.27 down from 2016 | 179 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
47TheranosticsOAIvyspring International Publisher · Australia | 3.29Q1 | 8.90 0.23 down from 2016 | 433 | 100% | $1,671 | ||
48Systematic BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 3.28Q1 | 5.91 0.94 down from 2016 | 356 | 47% | $2,166 | ||
49Nature reviews. CancerNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.13Q1 | 18.33 5.06 up from 2016 | 541 | 26% | — | ||
50Cell ResearchSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.07Q1 | 9.20 1.59 up from 2016 | 472 | 99% | $5,190 |
Subfields of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, with Molecular Biology highlighted.
- Molecular Biology1,133
- Genetics123
- Cancer Research27
- Cell Biology26
- Molecular Medicine10
- Biophysics7
- Clinical Biochemistry4
- Structural Biology3
- Biochemistry2
- Physiology2
- Aging1
- Developmental Biology1
- Biotechnology0
- Endocrinology0
Journals
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.
347 additional Molecular Biology 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
- 1,133
- Window papers (baseline)
- 377,367 +3.2% from indicator year 2014
- Median OJR
- 0.944 -5.7% from indicator year 2014
- Rising journals (2025)
- 129
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 | 519 | 546 | 586 | 626 | 650 | 687 | 707 | 752 | 778 | 801 | 844 | 901 | 955 | 996 | 1,034 | 1,073 | 1,109 | 1,133 | 1,155 | 1,157 | 1,141 | 1,136 | 1,158 | 1,167 | 1,149 | 1,152 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 181,358 | 194,151 | 205,259 | 217,711 | 227,129 | 242,923 | 257,591 | 273,038 | 286,182 | 303,541 | 319,771 | 333,582 | 344,870 | 354,245 | 365,796 | 374,398 | 378,858 | 377,367 | 371,908 | 369,033 | 372,681 | 388,390 | 409,363 | 424,318 | 425,615 | 430,199 | |
| Median OJR | 0.66 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.79 | 0.82 | 0.872 | 0.923 | 0.929 | 0.95 | 0.97 | 1.010 | 1.051 | 1.049 | 1.014 | 1.001 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.944 | 0.940 | 0.933 | 0.937 | 0.917 | 0.9097 | 0.870 | 0.89 | 0.9095 |
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.