Journal rankings · indicator year 2018
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2018
Life Sciences journal rankings 2018
3,027 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 3,027 ranked journals in 2018. The median journal has an OJR of 0.81, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2017; Q1 starts at OJR 1.35. The top three are Cell, Nature Genetics, and The Journal of Peasant Studies.
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.
Fields in Life Sciences (5)
Up to All journals3,027 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 9.81Q1 | 28.47 4.16 up from 2017 | 1,917 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
2Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 9.20Q1 | 22.22 1.01 down from 2017 | 812 | 77% | $12,690 | ||
3The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 7.90Q1 | 4.56 0.50 up from 2017 | 266 | 28% | — | ||
4Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 7.79Q1 | 20.58 0.35 down from 2017 | 73 | 69% | $4,500 | ||
5NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.29Q1 | 14.69 0.68 up from 2017 | 9,150 | 53% | $12,690 | ||
6Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 7.18Q1 | 18.87 0.13 up from 2017 | 769 | 71% | $12,690 | ||
7Nature Human BehaviourNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.66Q1 | 7.63 0.15 down from 2017 | 246 | 36% | $12,690 | ||
8Inflammatory Intestinal DiseasesOAKarger Publishers · Switzerland | 6.38Q1 | 13.07 10.54 down from 2017 | 45 | 100% | $990 | ||
9Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 6.29Q1 | 15.02 0.96 up from 2017 | 1,530 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
10Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 6.24Q1 | 17.68 1.20 up from 2017 | 734 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
11Ecology LettersWiley · United Kingdom | 6.20Q1 | 9.88 0.40 down from 2017 | 452 | 47% | $5,300 | ||
12FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.13Q1 | 12.39 1.37 down from 2017 | 160 | 89% | $3,297 | ||
13Nature Ecology & EvolutionNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 9.80 0.64 up from 2017 | 384 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
14ImmunityCell Press · United States | 5.57Q1 | 16.75 0.23 up from 2017 | 769 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
15Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.56Q1 | 13.76 3.50 down from 2017 | 520 | 54% | $12,690 | ||
16Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 5.55Q1 | 9.93 0.16 up from 2017 | 178 | 29% | $5,000 | ||
17Fungal DiversitySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 5.50Q1 | 15.86 0.64 up from 2017 | 70 | 29% | $3,490 | ||
18Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 5.31Q1 | 11.66 1.47 down from 2017 | 1,035 | 34% | $12,690 | ||
19Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.30Q1 | 13.84 0.58 down from 2017 | 11,182 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
20Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 5.24Q1 | 13.22 0.81 down from 2017 | 450 | 58% | — | ||
21Trends in Food Science & TechnologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.20Q1 | 9.50 0.89 up from 2017 | 553 | 24% | $5,440 | ||
22Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.13Q1 | 12.29 2.21 up from 2017 | 469 | 65% | $12,690 | ||
23Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.13Q1 | 11.33 1.91 down from 2017 | 343 | 35% | $5,460 | ||
24Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 5.10Q1 | 19.38 5.89 up from 2017 | 61 | 37% | $5,050 | ||
25Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 5.08Q1 | 12.15 6.82 down from 2017 | 118 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
26Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 5.05Q1 | 11.88 1.79 down from 2017 | 606 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
27Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 14.47 0.41 up from 2017 | 751 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
28MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 13.39 1.54 up from 2017 | 294 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
29Microbial Ecology in Health and DiseaseTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 4.77Q1 | 4.77 6.08 down from 2017 | 61 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
30Journal of Rural StudiesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.74Q1 | 4.33 0.74 up from 2017 | 489 | 44% | $4,090 | ||
31Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.72Q1 | 6.16 1.56 down from 2017 | 586 | 41% | $3,900 | ||
32Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 4.71Q1 | 13.38 1.54 down from 2017 | 612 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
33Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.70Q1 | 6.76 0.62 down from 2017 | 238 | 50% | $3,900 | ||
34Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 4.66Q1 | 13.65 4.57 up from 2017 | 999 | 86% | $3,418 | ||
35NeuronCell Press · United States | 4.63Q1 | 12.29 0.37 down from 2017 | 1,574 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
36Progress in NeurobiologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.59Q1 | 10.54 3.23 down from 2017 | 175 | 43% | $5,190 | ||
37Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 4.59Q1 | 12.09 1.28 up from 2017 | 78 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
38Psychological ReviewAmerican Psychological Association · United States | 4.54Q1 | 8.21 1.01 up from 2017 | 118 | 47% | — | ||
39Journal of Pineal ResearchWiley · Denmark | 4.53Q1 | 16.00 3.20 up from 2017 | 236 | 20% | $5,000 | ||
40Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.51Q1 | 12.39 1.85 up from 2017 | 1,231 | 39% | $12,690 | ||
41Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.50Q1 | 11.90 0.38 down from 2017 | 960 | 43% | — | ||
42Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 4.50Q1 | 12.50 0.98 down from 2017 | 753 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
43Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 4.47Q1 | 11.73 0.89 down from 2017 | 1,294 | 100% | $5,200 | ||
44Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.43Q1 | 13.69 0.65 up from 2017 | 67 | 17% | $5,410 | ||
45ACS Central ScienceOAAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 4.42Q1 | 13.32 2.30 up from 2017 | 330 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
46Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.38Q1 | 8.66 1.64 up from 2017 | 126 | 29% | $5,530 | ||
47Studies in MycologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.36Q1 | 8.84 4.32 down from 2017 | 53 | 100% | $1,430 | ||
48Journal of Agrarian ChangeWiley · United Kingdom | 4.29Q1 | 2.73 0.52 up from 2017 | 115 | 22% | $3,820 | ||
49Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 4.21Q1 | 13.32 0.02 up from 2017 | 1,194 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
50Food and Energy SecurityOAWiley · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 5.54 0.98 up from 2017 | 55 | 100% | $4,190 |
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.
902 additional Life Sciences 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
- 3,027
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,653,566 +2.8% from indicator year 2015
- Median OJR
- 0.80925 -2.6% from indicator year 2015
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
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 | 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.