Journal rankings · indicator year 2020
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2020
Oceanography journal rankings 2020
54 ranked journals · Subfield in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Oceanography has 54 ranked journals in 2020. The median OJR fell 0.07 on 2019 to 0.96, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.30. The top three are Limnology and Oceanography Letters, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, and Frontiers in Marine Science.
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 of Earth and Planetary Sciences (8)
54 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Limnology and Oceanography LettersOAWiley · United States | 2.79Q1 | 7.72 1.04 up from 2019 | 100 | 100% | $3,700 | ||
2Global Biogeochemical CyclesWiley · United States | 2.68Q1 | 7.12 1.84 up from 2019 | 301 | 64% | $4,070 | ||
3Frontiers in Marine ScienceOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 2.24Q1 | 6.22 1.41 up from 2019 | 1,695 | 100% | $3,801 | ||
4BiogeosciencesOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 1.92Q1 | 5.16 0.67 up from 2019 | 1,040 | 100% | $1,628 | ||
5Limnology and OceanographyWiley · United States | 1.80Q1 | 4.59 0.62 up from 2019 | 697 | 65% | $3,530 | ||
6Progress In OceanographyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.74Q1 | 3.87 0.50 down from 2019 | 453 | 49% | $3,720 | ||
7Ocean ModellingElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.66Q1 | 3.94no change | 284 | 59% | $3,140 | ||
8Ocean scienceOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 1.63Q1 | 4.25 0.74 up from 2019 | 267 | 100% | $1,412 | ||
9Journal of Geophysical Research OceansWiley · United States | 1.58Q1 | 4.25 0.03 down from 2019 | 1,553 | 59% | $4,070 | ||
10Marine ChemistryElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.45Q1 | 3.71 0.25 up from 2019 | 276 | 42% | $3,280 | ||
11Journal of Physical OceanographyAmerican Meteorological Society · United States | 1.42Q1 | 4.02 0.39 up from 2019 | 511 | 73% | — | ||
12Deep Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research PapersElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.39Q1 | 3.13 0.05 down from 2019 | 413 | 45% | $3,270 | ||
13OceanographyOAOceanography Society · United States | 1.31Q1 | 2.51 0.81 down from 2019 | 276 | 100% | $500 | ||
14Marine Environmental ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.30Q1 | 3.56 0.45 up from 2019 | 575 | 42% | $3,440 | ||
15Estuarine Coastal and Shelf ScienceElsevier BV · United States | 1.20Q2 | 3.17 0.49 up from 2019 | 1,139 | 39% | $3,410 | ||
16Continental Shelf ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.19Q2 | 2.52 0.45 down from 2019 | 473 | 36% | $3,260 | ||
17Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and EcologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.17Q2 | 2.25 0.48 down from 2019 | 400 | 36% | $3,270 | ||
18Journal of Operational OceanographyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.16Q2 | 3.15 0.15 up from 2019 | 65 | 13% | — | ||
19OceanologiaOAElsevier BV · Poland | 1.14Q2 | 2.36 0.05 down from 2019 | 142 | 100% | — | ||
20ALGAEOAKorean Society of Phycology · South Korea | 1.13Q2 | 2.63 0.89 down from 2019 | 84 | 100% | — | ||
21Journal of Marine SystemsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.12Q2 | 2.69 0.06 down from 2019 | 314 | 43% | $3,510 | ||
22Advances in Oceanography and LimnologyOAPAGEPress (Italy) · United Kingdom | 1.11Q2 | 0.95 2.32 down from 2019 | 41 | 100% | — | ||
23European Journal of PhycologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.08Q2 | 2.48 0.85 down from 2019 | 154 | 43% | — | ||
24Limnology and Oceanography MethodsWiley · United States | 1.08Q2 | 2.65 0.30 down from 2019 | 190 | 45% | $3,530 | ||
25Deep Sea Research Part II Topical Studies in OceanographyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.06Q2 | 2.47 0.26 down from 2019 | 510 | 52% | $3,760 | ||
26Journal of Plankton ResearchOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.04Q2 | 2.81 0.48 up from 2019 | 199 | 52% | $4,533 | ||
27Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic TechnologyAmerican Meteorological Society · United States | 1.01Q2 | 2.43 0.02 up from 2019 | 443 | 67% | — | ||
28Ocean DynamicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.91Q3 | 2.23 0.06 down from 2019 | 291 | 34% | $3,690 | ||
29Aquatic BotanyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.88Q3 | 2.53 0.84 up from 2019 | 232 | 22% | $3,180 | ||
30Helgoland Marine ResearchSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.85Q3 | 1.33 0.34 down from 2019 | 51 | 100% | $2,190 | ||
31Journal of Sea ResearchOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.83Q3 | 2.19 0.34 up from 2019 | 301 | 29% | $2,610 | ||
32Marine EcologyWiley · Germany | 0.78Q3 | 1.74 0.19 up from 2019 | 149 | 21% | $3,560 | ||
33Journal of PhycologyWiley · United Kingdom | 0.78Q3 | 2.84 0.65 up from 2019 | 332 | 33% | $3,900 | ||
34PhycologiaTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.73Q3 | 2.69 0.98 up from 2019 | 238 | 8% | — | ||
35Marine GeodesyTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.72Q3 | 1.62 0.12 up from 2019 | 96 | 24% | — | ||
36Journal of Marine ResearchYale University · United States | 0.68Q3 | 1.12 1.05 down from 2019 | 56 | 0% | — | ||
37Botanica MarinaDe Gruyter · Germany | 0.68Q3 | 1.71 0.15 up from 2019 | 187 | 54% | $2,712 | ||
38Geophysical & Astrophysical Fluid DynamicsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.58Q3 | 1.46 0.10 down from 2019 | 96 | 52% | — | ||
39Dynamics of Atmospheres and OceansElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.57Q3 | 1.57 0.13 down from 2019 | 104 | 23% | $3,000 | ||
40Journal of OceanographySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.55Q3 | 1.54 0.54 up from 2019 | 214 | 32% | $4,090 | ||
41Acta Oceanologica SinicaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.55Q3 | 1.42 0.21 up from 2019 | 527 | 3% | $3,090 | ||
42Cryptogamie AlgologieFrance | 0.51Q4 | 1.43 0.10 down from 2019 | 61 | 92% | — | ||
43Phycological ResearchWiley · Australia | 0.45Q4 | 1.35 0.31 up from 2019 | 151 | 30% | $3,800 | ||
44Journal of Oceanology and LimnologySpringer Science+Business Media · China | 0.44Q4 | 1.25 0.49 up from 2019 | 471 | 5% | $2,990 | ||
45African Journal of Marine ScienceTaylor & Francis · South Africa | 0.41Q4 | 1.19 0.26 up from 2019 | 129 | 28% | — | ||
46Journal of Ocean University of ChinaSpringer Science+Business Media · China | 0.38Q4 | 0.94 0.10 down from 2019 | 465 | 3% | $2,990 | ||
47Ocean Science JournalSpringer Science+Business Media · South Korea | 0.36Q4 | 1.12 0.42 up from 2019 | 174 | 2% | $3,090 | ||
48Plankton and Benthos ResearchOAJapan | 0.35Q4 | 0.77 0.14 down from 2019 | 92 | 100% | — | ||
49Open Journal of Marine ScienceOAScientific Research Publishing · United States | 0.24Q4 | 0.55 0.30 down from 2019 | 69 | 100% | — | ||
50Records of the Australian MuseumOAAustralian Museum · Australia | 0.22Q4 | 0.57 0.19 up from 2019 | 34 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Earth and Planetary Sciences, with Oceanography highlighted.
- Geophysics144
- Atmospheric Science87
- Paleontology76
- Oceanography54
- Earth-Surface Processes18
- Geology10
- Geochemistry and Petrology8
- Space and Planetary Science4
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.
19 additional Oceanography 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
- 54
- Window papers (baseline)
- 38,407 +0.4% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 0.96 -12.0% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 2
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 | 45 | 45 | 47 | 47 | 50 | 50 | 52 | 47 | 47 | 48 | 46 | 50 | 52 | 54 | 54 | 57 | 55 | 55 | 56 | 56 | 54 | 53 | 52 | 50 | 50 | 50 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 17,172 | 24,444 | 25,447 | 26,729 | 22,276 | 23,151 | 23,470 | 23,736 | 24,792 | 26,735 | 27,757 | 29,268 | 30,112 | 32,038 | 34,050 | 36,182 | 37,065 | 38,250 | 38,751 | 38,838 | 38,407 | 38,046 | 38,345 | 37,535 | 37,030 | 37,438 | |
| Median OJR | 0.70 | 0.78 | 0.98 | 1.059 | 1.02 | 1.16 | 1.17 | 1.31 | 1.36 | 1.22 | 1.27 | 1.26 | 1.092 | 1.11 | 1.060 | 1.19 | 1.062 | 1.093 | 1.05 | 1.03 | 0.96 | 0.84 | 0.82 | 0.83 | 0.81 | 0.79 |
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.