Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Field ranking · 2021
Earth and Planetary Sciences journal rankings 2021
402 ranked journals · Field in Physical Sciences
Earth and Planetary Sciences has 402 ranked journals in 2021. The median journal has an OJR of 0.84, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.04 on 2020; Q1 starts at OJR 1.25. The top three are Nature Geoscience, Earth system science data, and Earth-Science Reviews.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2021. 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 2018–2020, the window the 2021 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 Earth and Planetary Sciences (8)
Up to Physical Sciences402 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 2020. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2018–2020, the window the 2021 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2018–2020 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 2012 to 2021. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Nature GeoscienceNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.11Q1 | 20.92 5.59 up from 2020 | 564 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
2Earth system science dataOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 5.13Q1 | 18.70 3.71 up from 2020 | 424 | 100% | $1,509 | ||
3Earth-Science ReviewsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.76Q1 | 13.37 2.30 up from 2020 | 761 | 47% | $5,120 | ||
4Geoscientific model developmentOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 3.58Q1 | 14.10 5.51 up from 2020 | 770 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
5Surveys in GeophysicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.43Q1 | 9.35 1.57 up from 2020 | 141 | 45% | $4,290 | ||
6Journal of Archaeological ResearchSpringer Nature · Netherlands | 3.28Q1 | 4.71 3.74 down from 2020 | 30 | 42% | $3,190 | ||
7Geoscience FrontiersElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.07Q1 | 8.16 1.31 up from 2020 | 469 | 100% | $3,000 | ||
8Journal of World PrehistorySpringer Nature · United States | 3.00Q1 | 4.43 0.44 down from 2020 | 35 | 69% | $3,290 | ||
9Global Biogeochemical CyclesWiley · United States | 2.93Q1 | 9.47 2.36 up from 2020 | 331 | 61% | $4,070 | ||
10Atmospheric chemistry and physicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.87Q1 | 13.69 5.27 up from 2020 | 2,623 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
11Limnology and Oceanography LettersOAWiley · United States | 2.77Q1 | 8.72 0.99 up from 2020 | 121 | 100% | $3,700 | ||
12Meteorological MonographsOAAmerican Meteorological Society · United States | 2.76Q1 | 12.25 5.62 up from 2020 | 30 | — | — | ||
13Virtual Archaeology ReviewOATechnical University of Valencia · Spain | 2.73Q1 | 4.57 2.02 up from 2020 | 52 | 100% | — | ||
14The cryosphereOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.61Q1 | 11.69 4.24 up from 2020 | 686 | 100% | $1,574 | ||
15Nature Reviews Earth & EnvironmentNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.59Q1 | 18.06 2.22 up from 2020 | 122 | 34% | — | ||
16Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological SocietyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.45Q1 | 12.17 8.12 up from 2020 | 701 | 54% | $4,320 | ||
17Elementa Science of the AnthropoceneOABioOne · United States | 2.37Q1 | 6.47 0.87 down from 2020 | 223 | 100% | $1,450 | ||
18BiogeosciencesOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.32Q1 | 8.53 3.37 up from 2020 | 1,041 | 100% | $1,628 | ||
19Ocean scienceOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.28Q1 | 7.74 3.49 up from 2020 | 289 | 100% | $1,412 | ||
20Bulletin of the American Meteorological SocietyAmerican Meteorological Society · United States | 2.24Q1 | 5.44 0.77 up from 2020 | 972 | 79% | — | ||
21Earth and Planetary Science LettersElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.22Q1 | 6.42 0.58 up from 2020 | 1,592 | 63% | $4,670 | ||
22TectonicsWiley · United States | 2.21Q1 | 6.07 0.97 up from 2020 | 630 | 51% | $4,070 | ||
23Journal of Field ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.20Q1 | 3.05 0.12 up from 2020 | 131 | 41% | — | ||
24Gondwana ResearchElsevier BV · Japan | 2.20Q1 | 5.98 0.40 up from 2020 | 578 | 22% | $3,700 | ||
25American Journal of ScienceYale University · United States | 2.18Q1 | 6.15 0.35 up from 2020 | 91 | 12% | — | ||
26Journal of Geophysical Research Earth SurfaceWiley · United States | 2.16Q1 | 6.75 1.27 up from 2020 | 471 | 62% | $4,070 | ||
27Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural HeritageElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.15Q1 | 3.89 1.00 up from 2020 | 83 | 29% | $2,810 | ||
28GeologyGeological Society of America · United States | 2.13Q1 | 6.30 0.78 up from 2020 | 907 | 59% | — | ||
29Solid EarthOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.04Q1 | 5.63 1.75 up from 2020 | 331 | 100% | $1,811 | ||
30Frontiers in Marine ScienceOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 2.04Q1 | 6.82 0.61 up from 2020 | 2,428 | 100% | $3,801 | ||
31Geochemical Perspectives LettersOAPublisher not listed | 1.99Q1 | 5.54 0.88 down from 2020 | 102 | 100% | — | ||
32Journal of PetrologyOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.97Q1 | 4.72 0.53 down from 2020 | 270 | 35% | $4,353 | ||
33Coastal EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.96Q1 | 5.46 0.59 up from 2020 | 394 | 54% | $4,250 | ||
34RadiocarbonCambridge University Press · United States | 1.90Q1 | 7.39 5.84 up from 2020 | 436 | 68% | $2,487 | ||
35Journal of Geophysical Research AtmospheresAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 1.87Q1 | 7.81 2.57 up from 2020 | 2,356 | 53% | $4,070 | ||
36Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyElsevier BV · United States | 1.84Q1 | 2.48 0.66 down from 2020 | 222 | 41% | $3,370 | ||
37Geological Society of America BulletinGeological Society of America · United States | 1.83Q1 | 5.19 0.60 up from 2020 | 420 | 25% | — | ||
38Norwegian Archaeological ReviewRoutledge · Norway | 1.83Q1 | 1.42 0.08 down from 2020 | 55 | 50% | — | ||
39Geoscience LettersOASpringer Nature · Germany | 1.81Q1 | 5.56 1.24 up from 2020 | 69 | 100% | $1,390 | ||
40GeochronologyOAGermany | 1.79Q1 | 6.29 2.12 up from 2020 | 31 | 100% | — | ||
41GeomorphologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.78Q1 | 5.21 0.81 up from 2020 | 1,061 | 44% | $3,400 | ||
42Mineralium DepositaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.77Q1 | 4.88 0.17 up from 2020 | 241 | 38% | $3,890 | ||
43Climate of the pastOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 1.76Q1 | 8.26 2.55 up from 2020 | 361 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
44Limnology and OceanographyWiley · United States | 1.75Q1 | 5.94 1.35 up from 2020 | 652 | 63% | $3,530 | ||
45Economic GeologyUnited States | 1.75Q1 | 4.18 0.16 up from 2020 | 318 | 27% | — | ||
46Geochimica et Cosmochimica ActaElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.74Q1 | 6.26 1.06 up from 2020 | 1,393 | 59% | $4,090 | ||
47Computers & GeosciencesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.74Q1 | 5.86 2.23 up from 2020 | 441 | 35% | $4,010 | ||
48Science China Earth SciencesSpringer Science+Business Media · China | 1.70Q1 | 5.38 0.70 up from 2020 | 429 | 8% | $3,990 | ||
49GSA TodayOAGeological Society of America · United States | 1.70Q1 | 3.67 0.42 up from 2020 | 61 | 100% | — | ||
50Geochemistry Geophysics GeosystemsOAWiley · United States | 1.69Q1 | 5.39 0.95 up from 2020 | 894 | 73% | $3,000 |
Subfields of Earth and Planetary Sciences, compared.
- Geophysics144
- Atmospheric Science88
- Paleontology78
- Oceanography53
- Earth-Surface Processes18
- Geology10
- Geochemistry and Petrology7
- Space and Planetary Science4
Journals
Citations made in 2021. Corpus-wide, 87.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
96 additional Earth and Planetary Sciences journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2018–2020, 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: 2021. Publication window: 2018–2020. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 402
- Window papers (baseline)
- 230,384 +2.1% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.84 -5.3% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 21Comparison-group list (21)
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2018–2020 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 | 270 | 281 | 291 | 298 | 305 | 299 | 308 | 317 | 333 | 343 | 351 | 360 | 378 | 379 | 385 | 393 | 397 | 405 | 407 | 407 | 401 | 402 | 399 | 396 | 387 | 389 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 86,544 | 106,376 | 113,390 | 121,646 | 119,357 | 125,918 | 131,590 | 136,840 | 146,161 | 158,715 | 166,804 | 176,714 | 184,763 | 195,134 | 205,950 | 215,905 | 220,606 | 223,475 | 225,631 | 228,538 | 230,307 | 230,384 | 231,269 | 228,284 | 225,159 | 224,825 | |
| Median OJR | 0.7272 | 0.7268 | 0.8021 | 0.883 | 0.8018 | 0.8633 | 0.8763 | 0.87 | 0.882 | 0.8625 | 0.926 | 0.91 | 0.90 | 0.958 | 0.928 | 0.97 | 0.960 | 0.877 | 0.884 | 0.85 | 0.8764 | 0.84 | 0.77 | 0.750 | 0.745 | 0.76 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 6.5% | 303 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 0.384 per 1,000 | 282 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -8.8% | 362 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 62.6% | 389 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,200 | 236 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 37.4% | 369 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.0% | 389 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.76 | 387 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 32.1% | 389 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 41.4% | 389 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.