Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2021
Life Sciences journal rankings 2021
3,000 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 3,000 ranked journals in 2021. The median journal has an OJR of 0.81, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2020; Q1 starts at OJR 1.29. The top three are Cell, Nature Genetics, and Nature Biotechnology.
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.
Fields in Life Sciences (5)
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 11.14Q1 | 54.97 21.06 up from 2020 | 1,786 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
2Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 9.11Q1 | 34.74 0.27 up from 2020 | 602 | 71% | $12,690 | ||
3Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 8.19Q1 | 35.94 9.95 up from 2020 | 857 | 41% | $12,690 | ||
4International Journal of Oral ScienceOASpringer Nature · China | 8.09Q1 | 37.38 29.66 up from 2020 | 104 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
5Molecular CancerOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 7.77Q1 | 42.65 12.06 up from 2020 | 504 | 100% | $5,090 | ||
6NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.67Q1 | 26.24 8.90 up from 2020 | 8,686 | 34% | $12,690 | ||
7Fungal DiversitySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 7.59Q1 | 26.26 6.08 up from 2020 | 62 | 41% | $3,490 | ||
8Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 7.44Q1 | 25.60 2.86 up from 2020 | 632 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
9Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 7.20Q1 | 23.31 2.45 down from 2020 | 78 | 78% | $4,500 | ||
10Studies in MycologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 6.63Q1 | 20.65 3.36 up from 2020 | 42 | 100% | $1,430 | ||
11Nature Human BehaviourNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.47Q1 | 18.67 10.03 up from 2020 | 630 | 56% | $12,690 | ||
12Nature Reviews Molecular Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.18Q1 | 47.71 7.72 up from 2020 | 320 | 31% | — | ||
13Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 6.18Q1 | 23.45 2.46 up from 2020 | 689 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
14ImmunityCell Press · United States | 6.08Q1 | 30.82 8.52 up from 2020 | 753 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
15Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 5.97Q1 | 17.71 2.68 up from 2020 | 349 | 33% | $5,000 | ||
16Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.95Q1 | 27.26 12.60 up from 2020 | 670 | 64% | $12,690 | ||
17MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 19.72 1.46 up from 2020 | 531 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
18The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.65Q1 | 6.57 2.73 up from 2020 | 227 | 44% | — | ||
19Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.62Q1 | 18.46 3.66 down from 2020 | 503 | 55% | $12,690 | ||
20Artificial Intelligence in AgricultureOAElsevier BV · China | 5.44Q1 | 14.54 4.50 up from 2020 | 48 | 100% | $1,100 | ||
21Trends in Food Science & TechnologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.43Q1 | 17.76 3.41 up from 2020 | 919 | 29% | $5,440 | ||
22Military Medical ResearchOABioMed Central · China | 5.14Q1 | 26.86 23.18 up from 2020 | 140 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
23NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.06Q1 | 12.13 4.56 up from 2020 | 78 | — | $2,500 | ||
24Nature Ecology & EvolutionNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.04Q1 | 14.73 3.05 up from 2020 | 834 | 49% | $12,690 | ||
25Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.04Q1 | 19.93 2.77 up from 2020 | 16,685 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
26Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.87Q1 | 24.13 8.56 up from 2020 | 620 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
27Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 4.83Q1 | 16.18 8.20 down from 2020 | 233 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
28Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.82Q1 | 16.59 0.73 up from 2020 | 4,289 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
29Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.80Q1 | 22.44 9.34 up from 2020 | 1,055 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
30Cell ResearchSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.63Q1 | 24.12 11.50 up from 2020 | 434 | 100% | $5,190 | ||
31Nature Biomedical EngineeringNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.60Q1 | 18.16 2.33 up from 2020 | 444 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
32Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.57Q1 | 12.10 1.59 up from 2020 | 454 | 58% | $3,900 | ||
33Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 4.57Q1 | 14.54 1.60 down from 2020 | 107 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
34Science ImmunologyAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.55Q1 | 25.05 11.86 up from 2020 | 347 | 62% | — | ||
35Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.53Q1 | 9.62 0.94 down from 2020 | 245 | 46% | $3,900 | ||
36Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 4.48Q1 | 29.85 17.27 up from 2020 | 58 | — | $5,050 | ||
37Systematic BiologyOxford University Press · United States | 4.43Q1 | 6.55 7.27 down from 2020 | 272 | 74% | $2,166 | ||
38Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.41Q1 | 18.47 3.38 up from 2020 | 482 | 58% | — | ||
39Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.40Q1 | 19.60 4.42 up from 2020 | 796 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
40Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.33Q1 | 16.89 4.56 up from 2020 | 833 | 47% | — | ||
41Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.30Q1 | 24.78 7.43 up from 2020 | 61 | 44% | $5,410 | ||
42Molecular PlantElsevier BV · China | 4.29Q1 | 14.56 4.18 up from 2020 | 497 | 100% | $5,000 | ||
43FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 4.25Q1 | 12.34 5.51 down from 2020 | 145 | 68% | $3,297 | ||
44npj Regenerative MedicineOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.24Q1 | 17.52 5.52 up from 2020 | 70 | 100% | $4,190 | ||
45ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.23Q1 | 15.33 5.21 up from 2020 | 12,027 | 20% | — | ||
46Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 4.23Q1 | 19.90 4.73 up from 2020 | 682 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
47Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 4.22Q1 | 8.00 5.79 down from 2020 | 881 | 100% | $3,418 | ||
48Nature reviews. CancerNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.22Q1 | 32.65 8.58 up from 2020 | 337 | 28% | — | ||
49Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 4.19Q1 | 16.80 1.47 up from 2020 | 627 | 99% | $10,400 | ||
50Signal Transduction and Targeted TherapyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.16Q1 | 23.10 6.18 up from 2020 | 391 | 100% | $3,790 |
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.
936 additional Life 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
- 3,000
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,821,734 +10.2% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.80931 +0.01% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
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 | 1,416 | 1,528 | 1,615 | 1,712 | 1,731 | 1,801 | 1,865 | 1,956 | 2,004 | 2,096 | 2,222 | 2,355 | 2,484 | 2,599 | 2,705 | 2,838 | 2,923 | 2,983 | 3,027 | 3,037 | 3,015 | 3,000 | 3,030 | 3,032 | 3,014 | 3,016 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 681,698 | 747,894 | 789,157 | 838,563 | 854,790 | 911,302 | 969,983 | 1,041,301 | 1,106,285 | 1,194,995 | 1,291,816 | 1,389,175 | 1,451,151 | 1,495,499 | 1,547,978 | 1,608,280 | 1,646,156 | 1,651,790 | 1,653,566 | 1,677,661 | 1,731,463 | 1,821,734 | 1,907,316 | 1,955,191 | 1,960,779 | 2,008,547 | |
| Median OJR | 0.59 | 0.62 | 0.63 | 0.69 | 0.71 | 0.74 | 0.778 | 0.810 | 0.813 | 0.869 | 0.8675 | 0.90 | 0.91 | 0.873 | 0.8678 | 0.83 | 0.8177 | 0.8180 | 0.80925 | 0.806 | 0.814 | 0.80931 | 0.80 | 0.784 | 0.77 | 0.79 |
| Measure | Category statistic | Eligible population |
|---|---|---|
| Journal self-citation share | Median: 2.5% | 2,489 journals |
| Retracted papers per 1,000 | Pooled rate: 3.276 per 1,000 | 2,252 journals |
| Output growth | Median: -7.1% | 2,737 journals |
| Open access share | Median: 99.1% | 3,016 journals |
| Listed APC (USD) | Median including $0 listed prices: $3,258 | 1,900 ranked journals with a known listed price, including $0 listed prices |
| International collaboration share | Median: 25.1% | 2,917 journals |
| Review share | Median: 0.3% | 3,016 journals |
| Articles-only OJR | Median: 0.79 | 2,965 journals |
| Uncited share | Median: 26.6% | 3,016 journals |
| Citation concentration | Median: 42.9% | 3,011 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.