Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2021
Global and Planetary Change journal rankings 2021
221 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Global and Planetary Change has 221 ranked journals in 2021. Its median journal scores above the world average: OJR 1.03 against 1.00, up 0.02 on 2020. A journal needs OJR 1.85 to reach Q1. The top three are Reviews of Geophysics, Nature Climate Change, and Nature Sustainability.
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 of Environmental Science (11)
221 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Reviews of GeophysicsWiley · United States | 10.50Q1 | 35.00 10.00 up from 2020 | 79 | 70% | $3,880 | ||
2Nature Climate ChangeNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.27Q1 | 20.44 4.56 up from 2020 | 819 | 42% | $12,690 | ||
3Nature SustainabilityNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.67Q1 | 20.80 8.05 up from 2020 | 636 | 39% | $12,690 | ||
4Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate ChangeWiley · United States | 4.88Q1 | 12.12 3.85 up from 2020 | 178 | 67% | $5,450 | ||
5Current Climate Change ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 4.85Q1 | 14.87 3.34 up from 2020 | 79 | 63% | $4,490 | ||
6Geography and sustainabilityOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.80Q1 | 13.17no 2020 value | 36 | 100% | $1,700 | — | |
7Communications Earth & EnvironmentOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.02Q1 | 14.15no 2020 value | 65 | 100% | $3,490 | — | |
8npj Climate and Atmospheric ScienceOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.68Q1 | 14.15 3.35 up from 2020 | 135 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
9Sustainability ScienceSpringer Science+Business Media · Japan | 3.66Q1 | 7.32 0.58 up from 2020 | 379 | 76% | $3,890 | ||
10Current Forestry ReportsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 3.58Q1 | 11.39 3.04 up from 2020 | 58 | 90% | $4,990 | ||
11Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews WaterWiley · United States | 3.45Q1 | 9.87 3.13 up from 2020 | 210 | 62% | $4,200 | ||
12Earth s FutureOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 3.44Q1 | 11.41 2.29 up from 2020 | 349 | 100% | $3,180 | ||
13Environmental Innovation and Societal TransitionsElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.32Q1 | 10.53 0.86 up from 2020 | 201 | 70% | $3,610 | ||
14Global SustainabilityOACambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 3.29Q1 | 7.85 0.12 down from 2020 | 82 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
15One EarthElsevier BV · United States | 3.28Q1 | 8.83 3.11 up from 2020 | 288 | 96% | $9,170 | ||
16Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth SystemsOAWiley · United States | 3.25Q1 | 14.01 5.55 up from 2020 | 625 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
17Habitat InternationalElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.18Q1 | 5.89 0.26 up from 2020 | 333 | 22% | $3,560 | ||
18Earth System GovernanceOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.02Q1 | 9.23 2.66 down from 2020 | 39 | 100% | $2,180 | ||
19AGU AdvancesOAWiley · United States | 3.01Q1 | 9.41 9.41 up from 2020 | 32 | 100% | $3,460 | ||
20Ecology and SocietyOAResilience Alliance · Canada | 2.98Q1 | 6.23no change | 467 | 100% | $975 | ||
21Journal of Urban ManagementOAElsevier BV · Taiwan | 2.97Q1 | 5.98 1.20 up from 2020 | 95 | 100% | $1,200 | ||
22Climate Risk ManagementOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.86Q1 | 6.55 2.00 up from 2020 | 114 | 100% | $3,130 | ||
23Environmental Science & PolicyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.82Q1 | 7.73 1.18 up from 2020 | 714 | 58% | $4,250 | ||
24Land Use PolicyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.80Q1 | 6.88 0.79 up from 2020 | 1,997 | 35% | $3,830 | ||
25Weather and Climate ExtremesOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.75Q1 | 10.02 3.48 up from 2020 | 127 | 100% | $3,969 | ||
26Environmental Research LettersOAIOP Publishing · United Kingdom | 2.68Q1 | 8.61 0.37 up from 2020 | 2,060 | 100% | $3,045 | ||
27AMBIOSpringer Science+Business Media · Sweden | 2.65Q1 | 8.45 2.16 up from 2020 | 412 | 100% | $4,490 | ||
28Fish and FisheriesWiley · United Kingdom | 2.55Q1 | 7.93 1.45 up from 2020 | 232 | 59% | $5,000 | ||
29People and NatureOAWiley · United States | 2.53Q1 | 7.51 2.23 up from 2020 | 167 | 100% | $2,540 | ||
30Climatic ChangeSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 2.49Q1 | 6.40 0.99 up from 2020 | 749 | 57% | $4,390 | ||
31Frontiers in ClimateOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 2.48Q1 | 8.82 1.82 up from 2020 | 40 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
32Earth System DynamicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.46Q1 | 9.92 3.38 up from 2020 | 195 | 100% | $1,585 | ||
33Natural hazards and earth system sciencesOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.44Q1 | 6.69 1.54 up from 2020 | 585 | 100% | $1,553 | ||
34Journal of Environmental Policy & PlanningTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.43Q1 | 5.07 0.33 up from 2020 | 138 | 49% | — | ||
35Applied GeographyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.42Q1 | 5.78 0.85 up from 2020 | 454 | 42% | $3,220 | ||
36Atmospheric measurement techniquesOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 2.35Q1 | 9.67 3.96 up from 2020 | 1,140 | 100% | $1,585 | ||
37BioScienceOxford University Press · United States | 2.33Q1 | 6.18 0.79 up from 2020 | 431 | 59% | $5,088 | ||
38Perspectives in Ecology and ConservationOAElsevier BV · Spain | 2.22Q1 | 7.33 0.73 up from 2020 | 98 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
39Geophysical Research LettersOAAmerican Geophysical Union · United States | 2.17Q1 | 7.58 1.72 up from 2020 | 4,826 | 61% | $3,190 | ||
40Earth Systems and EnvironmentSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 2.16Q1 | 9.67 6.41 up from 2020 | 165 | 47% | $4,090 | ||
41Big Earth DataOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.12Q1 | 6.65 1.41 up from 2020 | 69 | 100% | $1,024 | ||
42Climate ServicesOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.11Q1 | 6.11 0.16 up from 2020 | 91 | 100% | $2,290 | ||
43Annals of GISOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.09Q1 | 5.70 1.42 up from 2020 | 92 | 100% | $1,500 | ||
44Regional Environmental ChangeSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 2.08Q1 | 6.09 1.86 up from 2020 | 433 | 53% | $3,990 | ||
45Ecosystem ServicesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.07Q1 | 7.63 1.39 up from 2020 | 482 | 57% | $4,100 | ||
46Environmental DevelopmentElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.04Q1 | 4.91 0.32 up from 2020 | 180 | 34% | $3,540 | ||
47Agricultural and Forest MeteorologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.01Q1 | 6.72 0.57 up from 2020 | 1,069 | 39% | $3,590 | ||
48Environmental Modelling & SoftwareElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.00Q1 | 6.72 0.49 up from 2020 | 708 | 64% | $3,500 | ||
49International Journal of Digital EarthOATaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.98Q1 | 6.07 1.63 up from 2020 | 190 | 79% | $2,390 | ||
50Global Environmental PoliticsThe MIT Press · United States | 1.93Q1 | 4.55 1.77 up from 2020 | 158 | 42% | — |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Global and Planetary Change highlighted.
- Ecology279
- Global and Planetary Change221
- Water Science and Technology101
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis93
- Pollution58
- Nature and Landscape Conservation57
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law52
- Environmental Engineering47
- Waste Management and Disposal22
- Environmental Chemistry8
- Ecological Modeling7
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.
62 additional Global and Planetary Change 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
- 221
- Window papers (baseline)
- 106,095 +15.4% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 1.03 +7.7% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 13
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 | 74 | 78 | 90 | 94 | 96 | 102 | 105 | 106 | 114 | 124 | 138 | 145 | 155 | 164 | 177 | 186 | 193 | 195 | 201 | 209 | 218 | 221 | 232 | 236 | 236 | 241 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 24,031 | 30,384 | 32,743 | 35,500 | 34,111 | 36,298 | 39,005 | 41,671 | 45,634 | 50,223 | 55,090 | 60,147 | 65,138 | 70,955 | 77,964 | 84,036 | 88,379 | 90,518 | 91,924 | 95,134 | 98,815 | 106,095 | 113,902 | 120,307 | 123,368 | 123,867 | |
| Median OJR | 0.70 | 0.789 | 0.794 | 0.78 | 0.90 | 0.88 | 0.97 | 0.928 | 0.92 | 0.931 | 0.977 | 0.999 | 1.061 | 1.09 | 1.07 | 1.011 | 1.064 | 1.04 | 0.96 | 0.99 | 1.013 | 1.03 | 1.02 | 0.975 | 0.982 | 0.978 |
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.