Journal rankings · indicator year 2019
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2019
Molecular Biology journal rankings 2019
1,157 ranked journals · Subfield in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Molecular Biology has 1,157 ranked journals in 2019. The median journal has an OJR of 0.93, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2018; Q1 starts at OJR 1.44. The top three are Cell, Nature Genetics, and Pharmacological Reviews.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2019. 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 2016–2018, the window the 2019 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)
1,157 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 2018. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2016–2018, the window the 2019 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2016–2018 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 2010 to 2019. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 9.89Q1 | 32.06 3.59 up from 2018 | 1,876 | 99% | $11,400 | ||
2Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 8.71Q1 | 24.41 2.18 up from 2018 | 778 | 75% | $12,690 | ||
3Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 8.21Q1 | 22.69 2.11 up from 2018 | 68 | 69% | $4,500 | ||
4NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.91Q1 | 15.42 0.73 up from 2018 | 8,960 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
5Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 6.29Q1 | 10.34 3.31 down from 2018 | 901 | 83% | $3,418 | ||
6Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 6.19Q1 | 17.17 0.51 down from 2018 | 734 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
7FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 6.00Q1 | 16.21 3.82 up from 2018 | 146 | 84% | $3,297 | ||
8Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 5.92Q1 | 15.80 0.77 up from 2018 | 2,171 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
9MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.54Q1 | 15.08 1.69 up from 2018 | 442 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
10Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 5.17Q1 | 15.12 3.46 up from 2018 | 969 | 39% | $12,690 | ||
11Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.00Q1 | 15.62 1.87 up from 2018 | 530 | 61% | $12,690 | ||
12Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.98Q1 | 13.02 0.72 up from 2018 | 687 | 61% | $12,690 | ||
13Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.94Q1 | 15.77 7.11 up from 2018 | 111 | 39% | $5,530 | ||
14Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 4.93Q1 | 14.50 2.41 up from 2018 | 93 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
15Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 14.59 0.75 up from 2018 | 13,113 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
16Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.81Q1 | 11.87 0.01 down from 2018 | 615 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
17Signal Transduction and Targeted TherapyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.73Q1 | 16.41 8.42 up from 2018 | 90 | 100% | $3,790 | ||
18Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.58Q1 | 14.75 1.06 up from 2018 | 61 | 23% | $5,410 | ||
19Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.57Q1 | 12.03 2.44 down from 2018 | 690 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
20Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.43Q1 | 12.24 0.98 down from 2018 | 465 | 59% | — | ||
21Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 4.43Q1 | 17.60 5.45 up from 2018 | 119 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
22Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 4.38Q1 | 12.86 0.52 down from 2018 | 636 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
23Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.35Q1 | 11.51 0.18 up from 2018 | 346 | 32% | $5,460 | ||
24Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 4.35Q1 | 3.45 15.92 down from 2018 | 64 | 58% | $5,050 | ||
25Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.34Q1 | 13.26 0.87 up from 2018 | 1,181 | 43% | $12,690 | ||
26ACS Central ScienceOAAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 4.31Q1 | 13.86 0.54 up from 2018 | 445 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
27Molecular CancerOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.25Q1 | 17.00 4.85 up from 2018 | 432 | 100% | $5,090 | ||
28Systematic BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 4.17Q1 | 9.51 2.48 up from 2018 | 299 | 59% | $2,166 | ||
29Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 4.11Q1 | 11.09 0.64 down from 2018 | 1,365 | 100% | $5,200 | ||
30Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.11Q1 | 11.30 0.59 down from 2018 | 944 | 32% | — | ||
31Nature Biomedical EngineeringNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.07Q1 | 11.72 1.48 up from 2018 | 302 | 46% | $12,690 | ||
32Science Translational MedicineAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.06Q1 | 11.13 0.65 up from 2018 | 1,237 | 44% | — | ||
33Molecular CellElsevier BV · United States | 3.90Q1 | 14.03 0.71 up from 2018 | 1,236 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
34Molecular Aspects of MedicineElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.87Q1 | 12.56 3.95 up from 2018 | 154 | 42% | $5,220 | ||
35Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNational Academy of Sciences · United States | 3.86Q1 | 10.18 0.40 up from 2018 | 11,302 | 100% | — | ||
36ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 3.75Q1 | 8.57 0.70 up from 2018 | 14,191 | 19% | — | ||
37Pharmacology & TherapeuticsElsevier BV · United States | 3.74Q1 | 11.50 1.59 up from 2018 | 464 | 54% | $5,660 | ||
38Nature reviews. CancerNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.73Q1 | 22.50 1.41 down from 2018 | 389 | 27% | — | ||
39Nucleic Acids ResearchOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.70Q1 | 11.62 0.66 up from 2018 | 4,063 | 100% | $3,992 | ||
40PLoS BiologyOAPublic Library of Science · United States | 3.62Q1 | 8.70 1.07 down from 2018 | 910 | 100% | $5,500 | ||
41Critical Reviews in MicrobiologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.60Q1 | 8.95 1.84 up from 2018 | 94 | 24% | — | ||
42TrAC Trends in Analytical ChemistryElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.51Q1 | 11.53 2.94 up from 2018 | 724 | 23% | $5,150 | ||
43Nature Reviews Molecular Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.42Q1 | 27.61 8.70 up from 2018 | 419 | 29% | — | ||
44EMBO Molecular MedicineOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.34Q1 | 8.42 1.54 down from 2018 | 362 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
45Medicinal Research ReviewsWiley · United States | 3.33Q1 | 9.65 0.22 up from 2018 | 155 | 39% | $4,980 | ||
46Cell ResearchSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.29Q1 | 10.70 1.02 up from 2018 | 437 | 96% | $5,190 | ||
47Redox BiologyOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.27Q1 | 10.34 1.55 up from 2018 | 689 | 100% | $4,310 | ||
48Gut MicrobesOALandes Bioscience · United States | 3.24Q1 | 8.30 0.11 down from 2018 | 189 | 100% | $3,060 | ||
49Molecular Systems BiologyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.16Q1 | 10.10 0.01 up from 2018 | 171 | 100% | $7,990 | ||
50npj Biofilms and MicrobiomesOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.15Q1 | 8.68 0.65 up from 2018 | 84 | 100% | $4,290 |
Subfields of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, with Molecular Biology highlighted.
- Molecular Biology1,157
- Genetics127
- Cell Biology28
- Cancer Research27
- Molecular Medicine11
- Biophysics7
- Clinical Biochemistry5
- Structural Biology3
- Biochemistry2
- Developmental Biology1
- Physiology1
- Aging0
- Biotechnology0
- Endocrinology0
Journals
Citations made in 2019. Corpus-wide, 83.4% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
336 additional Molecular Biology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2016–2018, 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: 2019. Publication window: 2016–2018. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 1,157
- Window papers (baseline)
- 369,033 -2.6% from indicator year 2016
- Median OJR
- 0.933 -4.9% from indicator year 2016
- Rising journals (2025)
- 129
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2016–2018 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.