Journal rankings · indicator year 2022
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2022
Ecology journal rankings 2022
295 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Ecology has 295 ranked journals in 2022. The median OJR fell 0.06 on 2021 to 0.62, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 0.95. The top three are Nature Food, Global Food Security, and ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2022. 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 2019–2021, the window the 2022 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)
295 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 2021. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2019–2021, the window the 2022 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2019–2021 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 2013 to 2022. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Nature FoodNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.84Q1 | 12.58 2.54 up from 2021 | 405 | 38% | $12,690 | ||
2Global Food SecurityElsevier BV · Netherlands | 4.67Q1 | 11.40 0.13 down from 2021 | 320 | 73% | $5,240 | ||
| 4.49Q1 | 13.84 0.15 up from 2021 | 742 | 43% | $3,310 | |||
4Global Change BiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 4.07Q1 | 12.15 1.54 down from 2021 | 1,435 | 65% | $4,550 | ||
5The ISME JournalOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.62Q1 | 11.70 0.20 down from 2021 | 812 | 99% | $4,153 | ||
6Conservation LettersOAWiley · United States | 3.30Q1 | 9.01 0.70 down from 2021 | 208 | 100% | $3,550 | ||
7Methods in Ecology and EvolutionOAWiley · United States | 2.89Q1 | 7.12 1.41 down from 2021 | 618 | 83% | $3,500 | ||
8Molecular Ecology ResourcesWiley · United Kingdom | 2.63Q1 | 7.43 1.60 down from 2021 | 556 | 58% | $5,250 | ||
9Biological ConservationElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.63Q1 | 6.74 1.38 down from 2021 | 1,251 | 58% | $3,830 | ||
10Environmental MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.41Q1 | 8.66 1.70 up from 2021 | 52 | 100% | $2,590 | ||
11Conservation BiologyWiley · United States | 2.40Q1 | 6.44 0.17 up from 2021 | 577 | 65% | $3,400 | ||
12Journal of Applied EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 2.38Q1 | 6.31 0.60 down from 2021 | 735 | 69% | $3,610 | ||
13Environmental DNAOAWiley · United States | 2.27Q1 | 6.74 0.91 down from 2021 | 224 | 100% | $2,880 | ||
14Remote Sensing in Ecology and ConservationOAWiley · United Kingdom | 2.21Q1 | 5.87 0.72 down from 2021 | 126 | 100% | $3,590 | ||
15Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentWiley · United States | 2.18Q1 | 5.55 0.64 down from 2021 | 425 | 56% | $3,970 | ||
16GIScience & Remote SensingOATaylor & Francis · United States | 2.01Q1 | 7.50 0.97 up from 2021 | 179 | 100% | $2,390 | ||
17Journal of Animal EcologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.96Q1 | 4.72 1.06 down from 2021 | 675 | 65% | $3,610 | ||
18Ecological ApplicationsWiley · United States | 1.96Q1 | 5.29 1.01 down from 2021 | 620 | 54% | $3,970 | ||
19EcologyWiley · United States | 1.92Q1 | 4.53 1.00 down from 2021 | 967 | 56% | $3,970 | ||
20Mammal ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 1.88Q1 | 5.85 0.26 down from 2021 | 121 | 47% | $4,100 | ||
21Ecological InformaticsOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.87Q1 | 6.04 0.59 up from 2021 | 512 | 31% | $2,770 | ||
22NeoBiotaOAPensoft Publishers · Bulgaria | 1.86Q1 | 5.75 1.22 up from 2021 | 222 | 100% | $970 | ||
23Earth Surface DynamicsOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 1.85Q1 | 4.79 1.83 down from 2021 | 196 | 100% | $1,682 | ||
24Ecological Solutions and EvidenceOAWiley · United States | 1.72Q1 | 4.31 0.11 up from 2021 | 100 | 100% | $2,330 | ||
25ISME CommunicationsOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 1.71Q1 | 5.02no 2021 value | 83 | 100% | $2,611 | — | |
26Global Ecology and ConservationOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.69Q1 | 4.48 0.16 down from 2021 | 1,485 | 100% | $2,980 | ||
27Movement EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.68Q1 | 4.56 1.45 down from 2021 | 146 | 100% | $2,790 | ||
28BMC EcologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 1.52Q1 | 4.33 0.39 up from 2021 | 119 | — | $2,290 | ||
29Environmental MicrobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.52Q1 | 5.14 0.11 down from 2021 | 1,265 | 56% | $4,640 | ||
30Frontiers in Ecology and EvolutionOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.51Q1 | 3.42 1.35 down from 2021 | 1,903 | 100% | $3,077 | ||
31Biodiversity and ConservationSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.50Q1 | 3.68 0.85 down from 2021 | 638 | 53% | $3,990 | ||
32BiogeochemistrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.49Q1 | 4.92 0.08 down from 2021 | 318 | 51% | $3,390 | ||
33Metabarcoding and MetagenomicsOAPensoft Publishers · Bulgaria | 1.49Q1 | 3.77 2.43 down from 2021 | 40 | 100% | $701 | ||
34Coral ReefsSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.45Q1 | 4.02 1.14 down from 2021 | 414 | 59% | $4,190 | ||
35Frontiers in Conservation ScienceOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.45Q1 | 3.34 1.84 up from 2021 | 121 | 100% | $2,353 | ||
36FEMS Microbiology EcologyOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 1.40Q1 | 4.74 0.13 down from 2021 | 618 | 52% | $3,297 | ||
37Earth Surface Processes and LandformsWiley · United Kingdom | 1.38Q1 | 3.81 0.95 down from 2021 | 680 | 52% | $5,330 | ||
38Restoration EcologyWiley · United States | 1.38Q1 | 3.72 0.71 down from 2021 | 669 | 44% | $3,300 | ||
39Royal Society Open ScienceOARoyal Society · United Kingdom | 1.36Q1 | 4.35 0.01 up from 2021 | 2,030 | 100% | $1,471 | ||
40Conservation Science and PracticeOASociety for Conservation Biology · United States | 1.36Q1 | 3.97 0.01 up from 2021 | 559 | 100% | $2,240 | ||
41Ecological EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.33Q1 | 4.22 0.23 down from 2021 | 849 | 30% | $3,910 | ||
42EcosystemsSpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.30Q1 | 3.73 0.32 down from 2021 | 443 | 52% | $4,790 | ||
43Endangered Species ResearchOAInter-Research · Germany | 1.30Q1 | 3.41 0.28 up from 2021 | 242 | 100% | $1,671 | ||
44FACETSOACanadian Science Publishing · Canada | 1.28Q1 | 4.20 0.70 up from 2021 | 193 | 100% | $984 | ||
45Microbial EcologySpringer Science+Business Media · United States | 1.28Q1 | 3.78 0.36 down from 2021 | 605 | 34% | $4,590 | ||
46Annual Review of VirologyAnnual Reviews · United States | 1.27Q1 | 12.21 3.79 down from 2021 | 87 | 97% | — | ||
47Animal ConservationWiley · United Kingdom | 1.26Q1 | 3.53 0.69 down from 2021 | 261 | 54% | $4,430 | ||
48International Journal of Sediment ResearchOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.26Q1 | 3.98 1.28 up from 2021 | 199 | 9% | $1,400 | ||
49OecologiaSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.24Q1 | 2.98 0.55 down from 2021 | 742 | 41% | $3,790 | ||
50Journal of Agricultural and Environmental EthicsSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.24Q1 | 2.30 0.04 down from 2021 | 114 | 86% | $3,090 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Ecology highlighted.
- Ecology295
- Global and Planetary Change232
- Water Science and Technology103
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis97
- Pollution61
- Nature and Landscape Conservation57
- Environmental Engineering50
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law50
- Waste Management and Disposal21
- Ecological Modeling8
- Environmental Chemistry8
Journals
Citations made in 2022. Corpus-wide, 89.5% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
52 additional Ecology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2019–2021, 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: 2022. Publication window: 2019–2021. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 295
- Window papers (baseline)
- 123,053 +16.0% from indicator year 2019
- Median OJR
- 0.62 -13.9% from indicator year 2019
- Rising journals (2025)
- 18
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2019–2021 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 | 147 | 164 | 175 | 182 | 188 | 194 | 193 | 205 | 221 | 232 | 235 | 248 | 249 | 258 | 261 | 273 | 276 | 274 | 274 | 269 | 276 | 279 | 295 | 296 | 288 | 285 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 34,254 | 41,682 | 44,762 | 49,088 | 47,455 | 50,630 | 54,383 | 60,221 | 66,252 | 72,124 | 77,093 | 82,207 | 86,067 | 90,052 | 94,017 | 98,126 | 99,678 | 101,371 | 102,738 | 106,059 | 108,848 | 114,234 | 123,053 | 131,302 | 140,427 | 146,313 | |
| Median OJR | 0.59 | 0.6292 | 0.638 | 0.6289 | 0.61 | 0.643 | 0.73 | 0.736 | 0.75 | 0.737 | 0.76 | 0.809 | 0.811 | 0.84 | 0.805 | 0.80 | 0.79 | 0.810 | 0.77 | 0.72 | 0.71 | 0.68 | 0.62 | 0.642 | 0.65 | 0.67 |
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.