Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2018
Ecology journal rankings 2018
274 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Ecology has 274 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.77, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.04 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.24. The top three are Global Food Security, The ISME Journal, and ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2018. 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 2015–2017, the window the 2018 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)
274 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 2017. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2015–2017, the window the 2018 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2015–2017 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 2009 to 2018. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.50Q1 | 6.96 2.28 up from 2017 | 115 | 63% | $5,240 | ||
2The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.92Q1 | 10.74 0.57 up from 2017 | 673 | 100% | $4,153 | ||
| 4.65Q1 | 8.25 0.91 up from 2017 | 538 | 38% | $3,310 | |||
4Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.45Q1 | 8.43 0.01 down from 2017 | 1,189 | 51% | $4,550 | ||
5Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 4.34Q1 | 7.31 0.75 up from 2017 | 564 | 63% | $3,500 | ||
6Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentWiley · United States | 4.07Q1 | 7.24 1.58 up from 2017 | 327 | 60% | $3,970 | ||
7Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 3.63Q1 | 5.92 0.33 up from 2017 | 261 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
8Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.36Q1 | 5.31 0.57 down from 2017 | 707 | 66% | $3,610 | ||
9Molecular Ecology ResourcesWiley · United Kingdom | 3.20Q1 | 6.51 0.36 up from 2017 | 384 | 44% | $5,250 | ||
10Conservation BiologyWiley · United States | 2.86Q1 | 4.75 0.01 down from 2017 | 574 | 49% | $3,400 | ||
11Movement EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.75Q1 | 4.33 0.70 down from 2017 | 89 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
12Journal of Animal EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.70Q1 | 4.71 0.02 up from 2017 | 452 | 62% | $3,610 | ||
13Mammal ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 2.69Q1 | 5.42 0.38 up from 2017 | 76 | 35% | $4,100 | ||
14Biological ConservationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.62Q1 | 4.91 0.25 up from 2017 | 1,226 | 42% | $3,830 | ||
15Earth Surface DynamicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.47Q1 | 5.18 1.27 up from 2017 | 133 | 100% | $1,682 | ||
16Remote Sensing in Ecology and ConservationOAWiley · United Kingdom | 2.41Q1 | 5.04 0.46 down from 2017 | 60 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
17Environmental MicrobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.30Q1 | 4.84 0.13 down from 2017 | 1,051 | 42% | $4,640 | ||
18EcosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 2.28Q1 | 4.17 0.40 up from 2017 | 388 | 35% | $4,790 | ||
19Ecological ApplicationsWiley · United States | 2.26Q1 | 4.82 0.91 up from 2017 | 623 | 49% | $3,970 | ||
20EcologyWiley · United States | 2.23Q1 | 3.44 0.37 down from 2017 | 1,143 | 46% | $3,970 | ||
21BiogeochemistrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.11Q1 | 3.96 0.06 down from 2017 | 331 | 33% | $3,390 | ||
22FEMS Microbiology EcologyOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 2.09Q1 | 4.84 0.60 up from 2017 | 608 | 78% | $3,297 | ||
23Earth Surface Processes and LandformsWiley · United Kingdom | 2.05Q1 | 3.81 0.44 up from 2017 | 565 | 40% | $5,330 | ||
24Global Ecology and ConservationOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.99Q1 | 3.83 1.06 up from 2017 | 285 | 100% | $2,980 | ||
25EcosphereOAWiley · United States | 1.97Q1 | 3.46 0.21 down from 2017 | 1,114 | 100% | $2,430 | ||
26Freshwater BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.89Q1 | 3.68 0.15 down from 2017 | 490 | 34% | $4,940 | ||
27Biodiversity and ConservationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.89Q1 | 3.18 0.06 down from 2017 | 623 | 34% | $3,990 | ||
28Microbial EcologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.86Q1 | 3.72 0.15 up from 2017 | 552 | 35% | $4,590 | ||
29OecologiaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.86Q1 | 3.24 0.12 down from 2017 | 839 | 31% | $3,790 | ||
30GIScience & Remote SensingOATaylor & Francis · United States | 1.85Q1 | 3.99 0.08 up from 2017 | 150 | 88% | $2,390 | ||
31Ecological EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.84Q1 | 3.93 0.49 up from 2017 | 1,621 | 25% | $3,910 | ||
32Royal Society Open ScienceOARoyal Society · United Kingdom | 1.84Q1 | 3.62 0.27 up from 2017 | 1,336 | 100% | $1,471 | ||
33Coral ReefsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.73Q1 | 3.56 0.11 up from 2017 | 375 | 32% | $4,190 | ||
34Animal BiotelemetryOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.69Q1 | 2.43 0.31 down from 2017 | 105 | 100% | $2,390 | ||
35Biological InvasionsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.69Q1 | 3.21 0.04 up from 2017 | 810 | 30% | $3,690 | ||
36BMC EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.67Q1 | 2.86 0.31 down from 2017 | 118 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
37Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United Kingdom | 1.63Q1 | 2.86 0.04 down from 2017 | 2,287 | 100% | $2,570 | ||
38MalacologiaUmeå University · United States | 1.62Q1 | 4.41 2.60 up from 2017 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
39Restoration EcologyWiley · United States | 1.62Q1 | 3.01no change | 455 | 29% | $3,300 | ||
40NeoBiotaOAPensoft Publishers · Bulgaria | 1.60Q1 | 3.07 0.71 down from 2017 | 64 | 100% | $970 | ||
41Annual Review of Marine ScienceAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.59Q1 | 14.03 2.77 up from 2017 | 62 | 56% | — | ||
42Achievements in the Life SciencesElsevier BV · Russia | 1.57Q1 | 5.43 3.11 up from 2017 | 40 | — | — | ||
43International Journal for Parasitology Parasites and WildlifeOAElsevier BV · Australia | 1.56Q1 | 2.19 1.26 down from 2017 | 150 | 100% | $1,930 | ||
44Frontiers in Ecology and EvolutionOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.56Q1 | 3.04 0.06 down from 2017 | 462 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
45Conservation PhysiologyOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.53Q1 | 3.08 0.09 down from 2017 | 235 | 100% | $2,734 | ||
46Current ZoologyOAUniversity of Oxford · United Kingdom | 1.50Q1 | 2.69 0.07 down from 2017 | 361 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
47Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater EcosystemsWiley · United Kingdom | 1.48Q1 | 2.96 0.06 down from 2017 | 293 | 29% | $4,730 | ||
48Journal of Hydro-environment ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.47Q1 | 1.44 0.13 down from 2017 | 163 | 6% | $3,000 | ||
49DiversityOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.46Q1 | 2.60 0.06 up from 2017 | 114 | 100% | $2,534 | ||
50Environmental Microbiology ReportsWiley · United States | 1.44Q1 | 3.36 0.75 up from 2017 | 330 | 31% | $3,300 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Ecology highlighted.
- Ecology274
- Global and Planetary Change201
- Water Science and Technology103
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis85
- Nature and Landscape Conservation58
- Pollution58
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law48
- Environmental Engineering47
- Waste Management and Disposal20
- Environmental Chemistry10
- Ecological Modeling6
Journals
Citations made in 2018. Corpus-wide, 81.5% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
70 additional Ecology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2015–2017, 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: 2018. Publication window: 2015–2017. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 274
- Window papers (baseline)
- 102,738 +4.7% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.77 -2.7% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2015–2017 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.