Journal rankings · indicator year 2022
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Domain ranking · 2022
Life Sciences journal rankings 2022
3,030 ranked journals · Domain
Life Sciences has 3,030 ranked journals in 2022. The median journal has an OJR of 0.80, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.01 on 2021; Q1 starts at OJR 1.26. The top three are Cell, Molecular Cancer, and Nature Genetics.
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.
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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 11.19Q1 | 51.75 3.22 down from 2021 | 1,651 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
2Molecular CancerOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 8.79Q1 | 35.28 7.37 down from 2021 | 478 | 100% | $5,090 | ||
3Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 8.64Q1 | 26.89 7.85 down from 2021 | 563 | 68% | $12,690 | ||
4Nature Human BehaviourNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 8.36Q1 | 27.62 8.95 up from 2021 | 631 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
5Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 8.25Q1 | 25.90 10.04 down from 2021 | 837 | 40% | $12,690 | ||
6Current Protocols in BioinformaticsWiley · United States | 7.98Q1 | 46.00 16.15 up from 2021 | 34 | — | $5,050 | ||
7NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.77Q1 | 26.89 0.65 up from 2021 | 8,562 | 37% | $12,690 | ||
8Fungal DiversitySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 7.11Q1 | 19.81 6.45 down from 2021 | 64 | 72% | $3,490 | ||
9Nature NeuroscienceNature Portfolio · United States | 7.00Q1 | 22.29 3.31 down from 2021 | 614 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
10Nature Reviews Molecular Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 6.75Q1 | 48.00 0.29 up from 2021 | 326 | 37% | — | ||
11Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 6.22Q1 | 23.70 0.39 up from 2021 | 84 | 81% | $4,500 | ||
12Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 6.22Q1 | 21.31 2.15 down from 2021 | 636 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
13Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 5.94Q1 | 23.67 1.23 up from 2021 | 964 | 53% | $12,690 | ||
14ImmunityCell Press · United States | 5.82Q1 | 23.64 7.19 down from 2021 | 745 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
15Trends in Food Science & TechnologyElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.70Q1 | 18.16 0.39 up from 2021 | 1,272 | 34% | $5,440 | ||
16Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyWiley · United States | 5.67Q1 | 17.30 0.41 down from 2021 | 457 | 34% | $5,000 | ||
17International Journal of Oral ScienceOASpringer Nature · China | 5.62Q1 | 20.91 16.47 down from 2021 | 114 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
18Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.51Q1 | 25.18 2.08 down from 2021 | 637 | 67% | $12,690 | ||
19The Journal of Peasant StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 5.39Q1 | 6.72 0.15 up from 2021 | 243 | 45% | — | ||
20NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesElsevier BV · Netherlands | 5.23Q1 | 4.14 7.99 down from 2021 | 52 | — | $2,500 | ||
21Nature reviews. CancerNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.21Q1 | 39.93 7.28 up from 2021 | 318 | 30% | — | ||
22Nature Ecology & EvolutionNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.12Q1 | 12.94 1.79 down from 2021 | 775 | 47% | $12,690 | ||
23Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 5.03Q1 | 25.00 0.22 up from 2021 | 66 | 48% | $5,410 | ||
24Nature Biomedical EngineeringNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.03Q1 | 20.62 2.46 up from 2021 | 445 | 60% | $12,690 | ||
25Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 4.96Q1 | 17.94 1.05 up from 2021 | 778 | 36% | — | ||
26MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.95Q1 | 17.42 2.30 down from 2021 | 538 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
27Molecular PlantElsevier BV · China | 4.94Q1 | 16.39 1.83 up from 2021 | 583 | 100% | $5,000 | ||
28Signal Transduction and Targeted TherapyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.84Q1 | 22.57 0.53 down from 2021 | 783 | 100% | $3,790 | ||
29Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.74Q1 | 18.23 1.70 down from 2021 | 18,537 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
30Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.64Q1 | 22.53 1.61 down from 2021 | 605 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
31Nature Reviews Drug DiscoveryNature Portfolio · United States | 4.63Q1 | 25.41 2.94 up from 2021 | 550 | 14% | — | ||
32Artificial Intelligence in AgricultureOAElsevier BV · China | 4.58Q1 | 11.81 2.73 down from 2021 | 75 | 100% | $1,100 | ||
33The InnovationOAElsevier BV · United States | 4.57Q1 | 19.62 2.11 up from 2021 | 172 | 100% | $5,000 | ||
34Cell ResearchSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.54Q1 | 23.26 0.86 down from 2021 | 444 | 100% | $5,190 | ||
35Nature ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United States | 4.51Q1 | 19.75 0.15 down from 2021 | 687 | 56% | $12,690 | ||
36Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.48Q1 | 16.19 2.28 down from 2021 | 520 | 54% | — | ||
37Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 4.47Q1 | 9.68 0.05 up from 2021 | 240 | 53% | $3,900 | ||
38Nature Reviews MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.44Q1 | 31.22 5.71 up from 2021 | 520 | 39% | — | ||
39Nature MetabolismNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.38Q1 | 16.51 2.18 up from 2021 | 434 | 57% | $12,690 | ||
40Science ImmunologyAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.33Q1 | 21.35 3.71 down from 2021 | 425 | 64% | — | ||
41Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.33Q1 | 15.58 2.87 down from 2021 | 482 | 61% | $12,690 | ||
42Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.32Q1 | 15.00 1.60 down from 2021 | 5,392 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
43ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.27Q1 | 16.01 0.68 up from 2021 | 10,232 | 32% | — | ||
44Psychological ScienceSAGE Publishing · United States | 4.24Q1 | 9.08 3.01 down from 2021 | 442 | 65% | $3,900 | ||
45Nature reviews. ImmunologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.23Q1 | 34.32 4.36 down from 2021 | 544 | 47% | — | ||
46Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 4.16Q1 | 16.45 0.36 down from 2021 | 589 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
47Genome biologyOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.14Q1 | 13.21 6.39 down from 2021 | 913 | 100% | $5,490 | ||
48Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 4.09Q1 | 13.44 1.10 down from 2021 | 120 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
49Military Medical ResearchOABioMed Central · China | 4.09Q1 | 18.23 8.62 down from 2021 | 161 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
50Physiological ReviewsAmerican Physiological Society · United States | 4.06Q1 | 29.09 9.57 down from 2021 | 128 | 78% | — |
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.
863 additional Life Sciences 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
- 3,030
- Window papers (baseline)
- 1,907,316 +13.7% from indicator year 2019
- Median OJR
- 0.80 -1.2% from indicator year 2019
- Rising journals (2025)
- 273
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 | 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.