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
Soil Science journal rankings 2020
42 ranked journals · Subfield in Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Soil Science has 42 ranked journals in 2020. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.28 against 1.00, up 0.03 on 2019. A journal needs OJR 1.95 to reach Q1. The top three are International Soil and Water Conservation Research, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, and Soil and Tillage Research.
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 Agricultural and Biological Sciences (11)
42 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1International Soil and Water Conservation ResearchOAElsevier BV · China | 3.49Q1 | 7.46 1.94 up from 2019 | 121 | 100% | $1,200 | ||
2Soil Biology and BiochemistryElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.03Q1 | 7.92 1.16 up from 2019 | 957 | 43% | $4,950 | ||
3Soil and Tillage ResearchElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.91Q1 | 5.89 0.80 up from 2019 | 729 | 23% | $4,570 | ||
4SOILOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.86Q1 | 7.74 3.14 up from 2019 | 63 | 100% | $1,110 | ||
5Agriculture Ecosystems & EnvironmentElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.70Q1 | 5.77 0.57 up from 2019 | 1,035 | 33% | $4,190 | ||
6GeodermaOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.37Q1 | 6.67 1.18 up from 2019 | 1,494 | 31% | $3,320 | ||
7Biology and Fertility of SoilsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.30Q1 | 5.22 1.44 down from 2019 | 242 | 41% | $4,790 | ||
8CATENAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.15Q1 | 5.52 1.01 up from 2019 | 1,303 | 22% | $3,680 | ||
9BiocharOASpringer Nature · Singapore | 2.03Q1 | 8.28no 2019 value | 32 | 22% | $2,690 | — | |
10Land Degradation and DevelopmentWiley · United Kingdom | 1.96Q1 | 4.59 0.32 up from 2019 | 752 | 23% | $5,230 | ||
11Agricultural Water ManagementOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.95Q1 | 5.11 0.89 up from 2019 | 1,216 | 22% | $3,070 | ||
12Applied Soil EcologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.91Q2 | 4.54 0.68 up from 2019 | 886 | 23% | $4,320 | ||
13European Journal of Soil ScienceWiley · United Kingdom | 1.82Q2 | 3.88 0.45 down from 2019 | 378 | 42% | $4,490 | ||
14PedosphereElsevier BV · China | 1.74Q2 | 5.32 1.66 up from 2019 | 290 | 6% | $3,000 | ||
15Irrigation ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.52Q2 | 3.22 0.38 up from 2019 | 128 | 13% | $3,990 | ||
16International Journal Of Recycling of Organic Waste in AgricultureOASpringer Nature · Iran | 1.51Q2 | 3.18 0.88 up from 2019 | 168 | — | — | ||
17European Journal of Soil BiologyElsevier BV · France | 1.43Q2 | 3.22 0.37 up from 2019 | 176 | 14% | $3,800 | ||
18Nutrient Cycling in AgroecosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.40Q2 | 3.19 0.21 up from 2019 | 225 | 42% | $3,890 | ||
19Geoderma RegionalElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.39Q2 | 3.66 0.61 up from 2019 | 137 | 38% | $2,310 | ||
20Agricultural & Environmental LettersOAAmerican Society of Agronomy · United States | 1.35Q2 | 3.10 0.64 up from 2019 | 86 | 100% | $1,900 | ||
21Soil Use and ManagementWiley · United Kingdom | 1.30Q2 | 3.31 1.58 up from 2019 | 214 | 28% | $4,120 | ||
22Archives of Agronomy and Soil ScienceOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.27Q3 | 2.69 0.20 up from 2019 | 511 | 10% | — | ||
23Applied and Environmental Soil ScienceOAHindawi Publishing Corporation · United Kingdom | 1.25Q3 | 3.08 2.11 up from 2019 | 48 | 100% | $1,000 | ||
24Soil SystemsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.19Q3 | 3.24 1.16 up from 2019 | 148 | 100% | $2,172 | ||
25PedobiologiaElsevier BV · Germany | 1.17Q3 | 1.93 1.03 down from 2019 | 114 | 20% | $3,260 | ||
26Economics of Disasters and Climate ChangeSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.10Q3 | 2.64 0.15 up from 2019 | 52 | 52% | $2,990 | ||
27Soil Science Society of America JournalWiley · United States | 1.09Q3 | 2.72 0.11 up from 2019 | 517 | 25% | $2,020 | ||
28Journal of Soil and Water ConservationSoil and Water Conservation Society · United States | 1.00Q3 | 2.56 0.71 up from 2019 | 249 | 65% | — | ||
29Journal of Soils and SedimentsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.96Q3 | 3.06 0.35 up from 2019 | 889 | 25% | $3,890 | ||
30Soil ResearchCSIRO Publishing · Australia | 0.91Q3 | 1.96 0.31 down from 2019 | 226 | 25% | — | ||
31Revista Brasileira de Ciência do SoloOASociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo · Brazil | 0.90Q3 | 2.42 0.93 up from 2019 | 213 | 100% | $100 | ||
32Soil and Water ResearchOAÚstav zemědělských a potravinářských informací · Czechia | 0.89Q3 | 2.79 1.54 up from 2019 | 92 | 100% | $609 | ||
33Review of Economics and Political ScienceOAEmerald Publishing Limited · Egypt | 0.86Q4 | 1.00 1.00 up from 2019 | 36 | 100% | — | ||
34Compost Science & UtilizationTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.72Q4 | 1.32 0.15 up from 2019 | 68 | 6% | — | ||
35Canadian Journal of Soil ScienceCanadian Science Publishing · Canada | 0.68Q4 | 1.79 0.33 up from 2019 | 171 | 82% | — | ||
36Irrigation and DrainageWiley · United Kingdom | 0.68Q4 | 1.36 0.21 up from 2019 | 275 | 13% | $3,450 | ||
37Soil ScienceLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 0.51Q4 | 1.25 0.13 up from 2019 | 71 | — | — | ||
38Irrigation & Drainage Systems EngineeringOMICS Publishing Group · United States | 0.34Q4 | 0.70 0.29 up from 2019 | 59 | 0% | — | ||
39Open Journal of Soil ScienceOAScientific Research Publishing · United States | 0.33Q4 | 0.67 0.15 down from 2019 | 73 | 100% | — | ||
40American Journal of Mechanics and ApplicationsOAScience Publishing Group · United States | 0.17Q4 | 0.36 0.05 down from 2019 | 30 | 100% | — | ||
41Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering BOADavid Publishing Company · United States | 0.15Q4 | 0.23 0.11 down from 2019 | 133 | 100% | — | ||
42Open Access Journal of Environmental and Soil SciencesOALupine Publishers · United States | 0.10Q4 | 0.21 0.03 down from 2019 | 52 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, with Soil Science highlighted.
- Plant Science577
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics152
- Food Science139
- Animal Science and Zoology58
- Insect Science51
- Soil Science42
- Aquatic Science39
- Agronomy and Crop Science38
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences33
- Forestry1
- Horticulture0
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.
3 additional Soil 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
- 42
- Window papers (baseline)
- 45,293 +22.4% from indicator year 2017
- Median OJR
- 1.28 -7.8% from indicator year 2017
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
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 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 33 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 39 | 39 | 42 | 43 | 41 | 42 | 40 | 39 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 7,748 | 9,099 | 10,240 | 11,138 | 11,116 | 11,430 | 12,496 | 14,005 | 15,614 | 17,540 | 20,048 | 22,776 | 24,823 | 26,542 | 28,955 | 32,598 | 35,237 | 37,010 | 38,759 | 41,955 | 45,293 | 48,749 | 50,177 | 51,294 | 52,438 | 56,582 | |
| Median OJR | 1.13 | 1.23 | 1.255 | 1.34 | 1.31 | 1.245 | 1.238 | 1.358 | 1.433 | 1.428 | 1.59 | 1.556 | 1.64 | 1.66 | 1.557 | 1.42 | 1.53 | 1.39 | 1.33 | 1.253 | 1.28 | 1.20 | 1.356 | 1.247 | 1.243 | 1.29 |
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.