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
Paleontology journal rankings 2022
78 ranked journals · Subfield in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Paleontology has 78 ranked journals in 2022. The median OJR fell 0.05 on 2021 to 0.73, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.03. The top three are Journal of Archaeological Research, Journal of World Prehistory, and Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
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 Earth and Planetary Sciences (8)
78 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of Archaeological ResearchSpringer Nature · Netherlands | 4.15Q1 | 4.69 0.02 down from 2021 | 39 | 25% | $3,190 | ||
2Journal of World PrehistorySpringer Nature · United States | 2.93Q1 | 2.67 1.77 down from 2021 | 36 | 88% | $3,290 | ||
3Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural History · United States | 2.42Q1 | 4.94 2.59 down from 2021 | 30 | 100% | — | ||
4RadiocarbonCambridge University Press · United States | 2.37Q1 | 9.28 1.88 up from 2021 | 401 | 64% | $2,487 | ||
5Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyElsevier BV · United States | 1.88Q1 | 2.73 0.24 up from 2021 | 250 | 40% | $3,370 | ||
6Journal of Field ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.78Q1 | 2.26 0.79 down from 2021 | 127 | 53% | — | ||
7PalaeontologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.45Q1 | 3.17 0.27 down from 2021 | 144 | 42% | $5,000 | ||
8American AntiquityCambridge University Press · United States | 1.42Q1 | 2.53 0.30 up from 2021 | 168 | 20% | $3,550 | ||
9GeobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.37Q1 | 3.75 0.81 down from 2021 | 136 | 59% | $4,880 | ||
10Journal of PalaeogeographyOAElsevier BV · China | 1.28Q1 | 3.78 0.61 up from 2021 | 92 | 100% | $1,500 | ||
11PaleobiologyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.20Q1 | 2.84 0.09 down from 2021 | 150 | 98% | $3,550 | ||
12AntiquityCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.18Q1 | 1.40 0.01 down from 2021 | 662 | 65% | $3,550 | ||
13Journal of Archaeological Science ReportsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.14Q1 | 1.77 0.04 down from 2021 | 1,439 | 51% | $2,910 | ||
14Journal of Systematic PalaeontologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.10Q1 | 2.48 0.75 down from 2021 | 179 | 33% | — | ||
15Archaeological Research in AsiaElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.09Q1 | 1.42 0.70 down from 2021 | 127 | 31% | $2,750 | ||
16Swiss Journal of PalaeontologyOASpringer Nature · Switzerland | 1.06Q1 | 3.59 2.27 up from 2021 | 54 | 100% | $1,340 | ||
17Cambridge Archaeological JournalCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.05Q1 | 1.49 0.23 up from 2021 | 162 | 79% | $3,550 | ||
18European Journal of ArchaeologyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.04Q1 | 1.22 0.58 down from 2021 | 97 | 56% | $3,550 | ||
19Zoological Journal of the Linnean SocietyOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.03Q1 | 2.85 0.59 down from 2021 | 486 | 89% | $3,541 | ||
20Vegetation History and ArchaeobotanySpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 1.03Q1 | 2.58 0.20 down from 2021 | 153 | 59% | $3,790 | ||
21Papers in PalaeontologyWiley · United States | 1.03Q2 | 2.36 0.49 down from 2021 | 150 | 48% | $4,480 | ||
22Environmental ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.93Q2 | 1.75 0.27 down from 2021 | 128 | 46% | — | ||
23Journal of Mammalian EvolutionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.90Q2 | 2.15 0.31 down from 2021 | 127 | 40% | $3,790 | ||
24Journal of AnatomyWiley · United Kingdom | 0.90Q2 | 2.37 0.65 down from 2021 | 636 | 92% | $4,050 | ||
25Newsletters on StratigraphyGebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung · Germany | 0.89Q2 | 1.76 0.75 down from 2021 | 65 | 28% | — | ||
26Open ArchaeologyOADe Gruyter Open · Poland | 0.89Q2 | 1.12 0.05 up from 2021 | 150 | 100% | $848 | ||
27Fossil recordOAWiley · Germany | 0.86Q2 | 1.98 0.22 up from 2021 | 59 | 100% | $1,240 | ||
28FaciesSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.86Q2 | 1.49 0.58 down from 2021 | 108 | 59% | $2,490 | ||
29GeodiversitasOAMuséum national d'histoire naturelle · France | 0.83Q2 | 2.23 0.01 down from 2021 | 82 | 76% | — | ||
30Cretaceous ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 0.82Q2 | 2.17 0.09 down from 2021 | 822 | 26% | $3,560 | ||
31Southeastern ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.81Q2 | 0.68 0.58 down from 2021 | 53 | 0% | — | ||
32Proceedings of the Prehistoric SocietyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.80Q2 | 0.86 1.48 down from 2021 | 44 | 60% | $3,550 | ||
33Ancient MesoamericaCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.78Q2 | 0.73no change | 146 | 69% | $3,550 | ||
34PalaeodiversityOAState Museum of Natural History Stuttgart · Germany | 0.77Q2 | 1.40 0.68 down from 2021 | 32 | 100% | — | ||
35Paläontologische ZeitschriftSpringer Nature · Germany | 0.76Q2 | 2.30 0.75 up from 2021 | 155 | 51% | $3,190 | ||
36Acta Palaeontologica PolonicaOAInstitute of Paleobiology · Poland | 0.76Q2 | 1.44 0.70 down from 2021 | 186 | 100% | $23 | ||
37Latin American AntiquityCambridge University Press · United States | 0.75Q2 | 1.03 0.26 down from 2021 | 216 | 41% | $3,550 | ||
38PalaeoworldElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.74Q2 | 1.49 0.23 down from 2021 | 179 | 13% | $3,000 | ||
39The Anatomical RecordWiley · United States | 0.74Q2 | 1.99 0.27 down from 2021 | 655 | 36% | $4,430 | ||
40GeobiosElsevier BV · France | 0.73Q3 | 1.89 0.03 down from 2021 | 112 | 32% | $3,030 | ||
41Journal of Vertebrate PaleontologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.72Q3 | 1.55 0.98 down from 2021 | 352 | 39% | — | ||
42Palaeontologia ElectronicaOAUnited States | 0.72Q3 | 1.96 0.08 down from 2021 | 188 | 100% | — | ||
43Netherlands Journal of Geosciences – Geologie en MijnbouwCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.72Q3 | 2.69 0.23 up from 2021 | 45 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
44Comptes Rendus PalevolOAMuséum national d'histoire naturelle · France | 0.71Q3 | 1.11 0.78 down from 2021 | 129 | 100% | — | ||
45Bulletin of GeosciencesOACzechia | 0.68Q3 | 1.83 0.38 up from 2021 | 72 | 100% | — | ||
46PalaiosSociety for Sedimentary Geology · United States | 0.67Q3 | 1.86 0.48 down from 2021 | 117 | 20% | — | ||
47Journal of Iberian GeologySpringer International Publishing · Spain | 0.67Q3 | 1.58 0.21 down from 2021 | 83 | 47% | $3,190 | ||
48Alcheringa An Australasian Journal of PalaeontologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.65Q3 | 1.41 0.05 up from 2021 | 100 | 38% | — | ||
49Historical BiologyTaylor & Francis · Switzerland | 0.65Q3 | 1.58 0.07 down from 2021 | 504 | 22% | — | ||
50Geologica BelgicaOAUniversity of Liège · Belgium | 0.64Q3 | 2.27 0.97 up from 2021 | 48 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Earth and Planetary Sciences, with Paleontology highlighted.
- Geophysics143
- Atmospheric Science90
- Paleontology78
- Oceanography52
- Earth-Surface Processes17
- Geology10
- Geochemistry and Petrology6
- Space and Planetary Science3
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.
16 additional Paleontology 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
- 78
- Window papers (baseline)
- 20,309 +4.3% from indicator year 2019
- Median OJR
- 0.7318 -12.0% from indicator year 2019
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
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 | 53 | 53 | 54 | 53 | 53 | 51 | 53 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 66 | 66 | 69 | 71 | 71 | 70 | 73 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 78 | 78 | 77 | 73 | 77 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 7,057 | 7,924 | 8,570 | 9,199 | 9,500 | 9,801 | 10,405 | 10,925 | 11,640 | 12,204 | 12,986 | 13,788 | 14,602 | 15,085 | 15,876 | 16,591 | 17,958 | 18,584 | 19,596 | 19,477 | 19,946 | 19,760 | 20,309 | 19,925 | 19,964 | 19,466 | |
| Median OJR | 0.75 | 0.61 | 0.619 | 0.63 | 0.620 | 0.708 | 0.660 | 0.65 | 0.69 | 0.715 | 0.7325 | 0.735 | 0.80 | 0.81 | 0.829 | 0.90 | 0.93 | 0.87 | 0.79 | 0.832 | 0.831 | 0.78 | 0.7318 | 0.68 | 0.657 | 0.64 |
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.