Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2020
Environmental Science journal rankings 2020
926 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Environmental Science has 926 ranked journals in 2020. The median journal has an OJR of 0.82, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.01 on 2019; Q1 starts at OJR 1.43. The top three are Reviews of Geophysics, Nature Climate Change, and Nature Sustainability.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2020. 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 2017–2019, the window the 2020 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 in Environmental Science (11)
Up to Physical Sciences926 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 2019. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2017–2019, the window the 2020 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2017–2019 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 2011 to 2020. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States | 10.85Q1 | 25.00 1.54 up from 2019 | 91 | 78% | $3,880 | ||
2Nature Climate ChangeNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.37Q1 | 15.88 2.18 up from 2019 | 837 | 34% | $12,690 | ||
3Nature SustainabilityNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.71Q1 | 12.75 3.39 up from 2019 | 435 | 47% | $12,690 | ||
4LandslidesSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 5.49Q1 | 6.18 0.81 up from 2019 | 514 | 26% | $4,590 | ||
5Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.39Q1 | 10.07 0.94 up from 2019 | 186 | 70% | $5,240 | ||
6UrsusUnited States | 5.13Q1 | 7.68 6.28 up from 2019 | 46 | 30% | — | ||
7Environmental Innovation and Societal TransitionsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.69Q1 | 9.67 0.52 up from 2019 | 152 | 66% | $3,610 | ||
8Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate ChangeWiley · United States | 4.59Q1 | 8.28 0.19 down from 2019 | 168 | 72% | $5,450 | ||
9Remote Sensing of EnvironmentElsevier BV · United States | 4.52Q1 | 11.82 0.41 up from 2019 | 1,470 | 56% | $4,450 | ||
10Resources Conservation and RecyclingElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.51Q1 | 10.52 0.61 up from 2019 | 1,164 | 39% | $5,270 | ||
11Ecological MonographsWiley · United States | 4.34Q1 | 10.09 0.39 up from 2019 | 125 | 43% | $3,970 | ||
12Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.18Q1 | 10.88 1.29 up from 2019 | 1,220 | 64% | $4,550 | ||
13Current Climate Change ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 4.16Q1 | 11.53 3.30 up from 2019 | 97 | 71% | $4,490 | ||
14ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote SensingElsevier BV | 4.15Q1 | 10.60 1.36 up from 2019 | 698 | 39% | $3,310 | ||
15The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.03Q1 | 11.34 0.68 up from 2019 | 739 | 100% | $4,153 | ||
16npj Clean WaterOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.80Q1 | 12.33 6.41 up from 2019 | 46 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
17Journal of Environmental PsychologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.67Q1 | 6.26 0.91 up from 2019 | 287 | 42% | $4,380 | ||
18Sustainability ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · Japan | 3.66Q1 | 6.74 1.22 up from 2019 | 362 | 59% | $3,890 | ||
19Global SustainabilityOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.64Q1 | 7.98 2.26 up from 2019 | 42 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
20Earth s FutureOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 3.61Q1 | 9.13 0.67 up from 2019 | 297 | 100% | $3,180 | ||
21Habitat InternationalElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.60Q1 | 5.63 0.42 up from 2019 | 351 | 26% | $3,560 | ||
22Climate Risk ManagementOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.57Q1 | 4.54 1.18 down from 2019 | 110 | 100% | $3,130 | ||
23Trends in Environmental Analytical ChemistryElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.48Q1 | 9.40 0.58 up from 2019 | 37 | 30% | $4,430 | ||
24Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 3.48Q1 | 8.70 1.98 up from 2019 | 236 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
25Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 3.47Q1 | 8.20 0.70 up from 2019 | 574 | 65% | $3,500 | ||
26npj Climate and Atmospheric ScienceOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.42Q1 | 10.80 3.89 up from 2019 | 96 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
27Engineering GeologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.41Q1 | 6.27 0.96 up from 2019 | 950 | 19% | $4,210 | ||
28Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and TechnologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 3.40Q1 | 11.66 0.75 up from 2019 | 191 | 32% | — | ||
29Journal of Cleaner ProductionElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.34Q1 | 10.27 1.57 up from 2019 | 11,057 | 21% | $4,660 | ||
30Environmental Education ResearchTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.27Q1 | 3.31 0.10 down from 2019 | 228 | 33% | — | ||
31Ecology and SocietyOAResilience Alliance · Canada | 3.27Q1 | 6.23 0.24 up from 2019 | 502 | 100% | $975 | ||
32Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews WaterWiley · United States | 3.25Q1 | 6.75 0.88 up from 2019 | 192 | 49% | $4,200 | ||
33Water ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.20Q1 | 11.76 1.20 up from 2019 | 2,740 | 33% | $4,660 | ||
34Environmental Science & PolicyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.19Q1 | 6.56 0.53 up from 2019 | 649 | 54% | $4,250 | ||
35Fish and FisheriesWiley · United Kingdom | 3.17Q1 | 6.48 0.15 down from 2019 | 235 | 52% | $5,000 | ||
36BioScienceOxford University Press · United States | 3.17Q1 | 5.39 0.30 down from 2019 | 420 | 58% | $5,088 | ||
37Big Earth DataOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 3.11Q1 | 5.23 0.36 down from 2019 | 54 | 100% | $1,024 | ||
38Water Research XOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.11Q1 | 10.67 7.22 up from 2019 | 33 | 100% | $3,943 | ||
39Environment InternationalOAElsevier BV · United States | 3.09Q1 | 10.80 2.01 up from 2019 | 1,857 | 100% | $4,750 | ||
40Journal of EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 3.08Q1 | 6.44 0.66 up from 2019 | 589 | 63% | $3,610 | ||
41Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.99Q1 | 6.55 1.01 up from 2019 | 682 | 71% | $3,610 | ||
42Journal of Industrial EcologyWiley · United States | 2.98Q1 | 7.83 0.44 up from 2019 | 339 | 60% | $3,750 | ||
43Current Forestry ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.98Q1 | 8.34 1.57 up from 2019 | 54 | 63% | $4,990 | ||
44Geo-spatial Information ScienceOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.98Q1 | 5.22 0.61 down from 2019 | 93 | 100% | $1,993 | ||
45AnthropoceneElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.98Q1 | 5.95 0.07 up from 2019 | 91 | 61% | $3,770 | ||
46Sustainable Cities and SocietyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.95Q1 | 9.29 2.02 up from 2019 | 1,458 | 29% | $4,870 | ||
47Environmental Research LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.90Q1 | 8.24 0.39 up from 2019 | 1,573 | 100% | $3,045 | ||
48Emerging contaminantsOAKeAi · Netherlands | 2.85Q1 | 5.00 9.25 down from 2019 | 61 | 100% | $1,100 | ||
49Current Environmental Health ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 2.84Q1 | 9.26 1.52 up from 2019 | 135 | 74% | $3,990 | ||
50Environmental Health PerspectivesOANational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences · United States | 2.82Q1 | 8.83 0.71 up from 2019 | 518 | 100% | $4,500 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, compared.
- Ecology276
- Global and Planetary Change218
- Water Science and Technology101
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis86
- Pollution61
- Nature and Landscape Conservation56
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law48
- Environmental Engineering43
- Waste Management and Disposal21
- Environmental Chemistry9
- Ecological Modeling7
Journals
Citations made in 2020. Corpus-wide, 86.1% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
272 additional Environmental Science journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2017–2019, 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: 2020. Publication window: 2017–2019. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 926
- Window papers (baseline)
- 636,773 +4.5% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 0.824 -3.7% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 67Comparison-group list (67)
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2017–2019 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 | 429 | 465 | 498 | 528 | 542 | 555 | 565 | 584 | 621 | 658 | 691 | 730 | 752 | 781 | 816 | 854 | 879 | 894 | 910 | 907 | 926 | 945 | 982 | 992 | 992 | 998 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 177,914 | 208,192 | 224,441 | 245,259 | 251,131 | 272,523 | 295,719 | 323,264 | 355,145 | 387,726 | 421,450 | 454,259 | 488,219 | 520,283 | 555,752 | 588,865 | 606,383 | 609,229 | 603,145 | 613,842 | 636,773 | 681,372 | 729,009 | 768,184 | 799,466 | 839,315 | |
| Median OJR | 0.68 | 0.73 | 0.763 | 0.755 | 0.753 | 0.7599 | 0.820 | 0.814 | 0.84 | 0.832 | 0.85 | 0.885 | 0.916 | 0.917 | 0.90 | 0.879 | 0.89 | 0.86 | 0.829 | 0.815 | 0.824 | 0.80 | 0.757 | 0.7602 | 0.77 | 0.79 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 4.0% | 780 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 1.062 per 1,000 | 688 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -2.4% | 896 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 79.2% | 998 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,120 | 607 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 30.3% | 956 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 998 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.80 | 989 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 26.5% | 998 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 41.9% | 995 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.