Journal rankings · indicator year 2023
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2023
Molecular Biology journal rankings 2023
1,167 ranked journals · Subfield in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Molecular Biology has 1,167 ranked journals in 2023. The median journal has an OJR of 0.87, below the world average of 1.00, down 0.04 on 2022; Q1 starts at OJR 1.36. The top three are Cell, Molecular Cancer, and Nature Genetics.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2023. 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 2020–2022, the window the 2023 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 Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (14)
1,167 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 2022. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2020–2022, the window the 2023 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2020–2022 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 2014 to 2023. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1CellCell Press · United States | 10.78Q1 | 35.77 15.98 down from 2022 | 1,496 | 100% | $11,400 | ||
2Molecular CancerOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 8.11Q1 | 27.73 7.55 down from 2022 | 497 | 100% | $5,090 | ||
3Nature GeneticsNature Portfolio · United States | 7.47Q1 | 26.04 0.85 down from 2022 | 632 | 58% | $12,690 | ||
4NatureNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.35Q1 | 20.05 6.84 down from 2022 | 8,744 | 35% | $12,690 | ||
5Nature Reviews Molecular Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 7.20Q1 | 37.39 10.61 down from 2022 | 339 | 24% | — | ||
6Nature MethodsNature Portfolio · United States | 6.62Q1 | 19.15 4.52 down from 2022 | 948 | 51% | $12,690 | ||
7iMetaOAWiley · Australia | 6.41Q1 | 20.54no 2022 value | 59 | 100% | $1,320 | — | |
8Pharmacological ReviewsAmerican Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics · United States | 6.38Q1 | 19.12 4.58 down from 2022 | 102 | 70% | $4,500 | ||
9Signal Transduction and Targeted TherapyOASpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 6.35Q1 | 24.23 1.66 up from 2022 | 1,108 | 100% | $3,790 | ||
10Cell MetabolismCell Press · United States | 6.34Q1 | 20.40 0.91 down from 2022 | 600 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
11Nature BiotechnologyNature Portfolio · United States | 6.34Q1 | 17.65 8.25 down from 2022 | 883 | 41% | $12,690 | ||
12Nature Biomedical EngineeringNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.83Q1 | 22.52 1.90 up from 2022 | 460 | 54% | $12,690 | ||
13Nature reviews. CancerNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.76Q1 | 33.08 6.85 down from 2022 | 297 | 17% | — | ||
14Nature MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 5.44Q1 | 15.92 9.27 down from 2022 | 572 | 62% | $12,690 | ||
15Nature Reviews Drug DiscoveryNature Portfolio · United States | 5.39Q1 | 25.72 0.31 up from 2022 | 547 | 11% | — | ||
16Circulation ResearchLippincott Williams & Wilkins · United States | 5.26Q1 | 15.30 2.65 down from 2022 | 697 | 29% | — | ||
17ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.96Q1 | 16.75 0.74 up from 2022 | 8,132 | 34% | — | ||
18Nature Reviews MicrobiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.93Q1 | 24.84 6.37 down from 2022 | 516 | 30% | — | ||
19The InnovationOAElsevier BV · United States | 4.76Q1 | 18.83 0.79 down from 2022 | 316 | 100% | $5,000 | ||
20Drug Resistance UpdatesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.75Q1 | 17.21 7.79 down from 2022 | 83 | 54% | $5,410 | ||
21International Journal of Oral ScienceOASpringer Nature · China | 4.75Q1 | 12.10 8.81 down from 2022 | 135 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
22Nature MetabolismNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.70Q1 | 14.36 2.15 down from 2022 | 497 | 51% | $12,690 | ||
23Cell ResearchSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 4.62Q1 | 11.70 11.57 down from 2022 | 451 | 100% | $5,190 | ||
24Nature CommunicationsOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 4.60Q1 | 16.12 2.12 down from 2022 | 20,654 | 100% | $6,990 | ||
25MicrobiomeOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 4.53Q1 | 15.17 2.25 down from 2022 | 618 | 100% | $4,990 | ||
26Progress in Lipid ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 4.46Q1 | 16.16 1.04 up from 2022 | 96 | 61% | $5,530 | ||
27Nature ProtocolsNature Portfolio · United States | 4.44Q1 | 14.69 1.50 down from 2022 | 523 | 46% | — | ||
28Military Medical ResearchOABioMed Central · China | 4.35Q1 | 11.18 7.05 down from 2022 | 196 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
29Bone ResearchOASpringer Nature · China | 4.33Q1 | 15.49 2.05 up from 2022 | 148 | 100% | $3,405 | ||
30Science Translational MedicineAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.22Q1 | 16.05 1.28 up from 2022 | 1,157 | 62% | — | ||
31Cell stem cellElsevier BV · United States | 4.09Q1 | 13.76 2.69 down from 2022 | 550 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
32Cell Host & MicrobeCell Press · United States | 4.07Q1 | 13.63 8.90 down from 2022 | 611 | 100% | $10,400 | ||
33Science AdvancesOAAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science · United States | 4.04Q1 | 12.99 2.00 down from 2022 | 6,331 | 100% | $4,500 | ||
34Nature Cell BiologyNature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 3.92Q1 | 12.58 3.01 down from 2022 | 523 | 52% | $12,690 | ||
35ACS Central ScienceOAAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 3.83Q1 | 13.19 4.77 down from 2022 | 546 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
36Nucleic Acids ResearchOAOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.82Q1 | 15.08 0.02 up from 2022 | 3,756 | 100% | $3,992 | ||
37Experimental & Molecular MedicineOASpringer Nature · South Korea | 3.78Q1 | 10.61 3.90 down from 2022 | 525 | 100% | $4,490 | ||
38Medicinal Research ReviewsWiley · United States | 3.70Q1 | 11.75 1.97 down from 2022 | 211 | 55% | $4,980 | ||
39Journal of Extracellular VesiclesOATaylor & Francis · United States | 3.63Q1 | 16.27 0.17 up from 2022 | 327 | 100% | $4,410 | ||
40Pharmacology & TherapeuticsElsevier BV · United States | 3.61Q1 | 11.62 0.81 down from 2022 | 521 | 55% | $5,660 | ||
41Molecular Biology and EvolutionOAOxford University Press · United States | 3.60Q1 | 12.21 1.42 up from 2022 | 956 | 100% | $3,418 | ||
42Nature AgingNature Portfolio · United States | 3.59Q1 | 11.02 0.05 down from 2022 | 301 | 51% | $12,690 | ||
43Biotechnology AdvancesElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 3.50Q1 | 13.39 1.43 down from 2022 | 389 | 48% | $5,460 | ||
44Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica BOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.47Q1 | 12.64 0.14 up from 2022 | 833 | 100% | $2,600 | ||
45Cell Death and DifferentiationSpringer Nature · United Kingdom | 3.44Q1 | 14.01 1.72 up from 2022 | 578 | 100% | $5,790 | ||
46Redox BiologyOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 3.44Q1 | 11.51 0.20 down from 2022 | 1,123 | 100% | $4,310 | ||
47Gut MicrobesOALandes Bioscience · United States | 3.37Q1 | 13.45 0.37 up from 2022 | 629 | 100% | $3,060 | ||
48TheranosticsOAIvyspring International Publisher · Australia | 3.37Q1 | 12.71 0.32 down from 2022 | 1,765 | 100% | $1,671 | ||
49FEMS Microbiology ReviewsOAOxford University Press · Netherlands | 3.37Q1 | 10.76 0.61 down from 2022 | 182 | 94% | $3,297 | ||
50Journal of Clinical InvestigationOAAmerican Society for Clinical Investigation · United States | 3.36Q1 | 10.64 2.41 down from 2022 | 1,708 | 100% | $5,200 |
Subfields of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, with Molecular Biology highlighted.
- Molecular Biology1,167
- Genetics120
- Cancer Research26
- Cell Biology26
- Molecular Medicine9
- Biophysics7
- Clinical Biochemistry4
- Biochemistry3
- Structural Biology2
- Developmental Biology1
- Physiology1
- Aging0
- Biotechnology0
- Endocrinology0
Journals
Citations made in 2023. Corpus-wide, 88.9% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
282 additional Molecular Biology journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2020–2022, 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: 2023. Publication window: 2020–2022. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 1,167
- Window papers (baseline)
- 424,318 +13.9% from indicator year 2020
- Median OJR
- 0.870 -7.1% from indicator year 2020
- Rising journals (2025)
- 129
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2020–2022 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 | 519 | 546 | 586 | 626 | 650 | 687 | 707 | 752 | 778 | 801 | 844 | 901 | 955 | 996 | 1,034 | 1,073 | 1,109 | 1,133 | 1,155 | 1,157 | 1,141 | 1,136 | 1,158 | 1,167 | 1,149 | 1,152 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 181,358 | 194,151 | 205,259 | 217,711 | 227,129 | 242,923 | 257,591 | 273,038 | 286,182 | 303,541 | 319,771 | 333,582 | 344,870 | 354,245 | 365,796 | 374,398 | 378,858 | 377,367 | 371,908 | 369,033 | 372,681 | 388,390 | 409,363 | 424,318 | 425,615 | 430,199 | |
| Median OJR | 0.66 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.79 | 0.82 | 0.872 | 0.923 | 0.929 | 0.95 | 0.97 | 1.010 | 1.051 | 1.049 | 1.014 | 1.001 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.944 | 0.940 | 0.933 | 0.937 | 0.917 | 0.9097 | 0.870 | 0.89 | 0.9095 |
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.