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
Paleontology journal rankings 2023
77 ranked journals · Subfield in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Paleontology has 77 ranked journals in 2023. The median OJR fell 0.05 on 2022 to 0.68, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.00. The top three are Journal of World Prehistory, Journal of Archaeological Research, and Radiocarbon.
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 Earth and Planetary Sciences (8)
77 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of World PrehistorySpringer Nature · United States | 3.94Q1 | 6.55 3.88 up from 2022 | 31 | 71% | $3,290 | ||
2Journal of Archaeological ResearchSpringer Nature · Netherlands | 3.68Q1 | 4.97 0.27 up from 2022 | 38 | 67% | $3,190 | ||
3RadiocarbonCambridge University Press · United States | 3.28Q1 | 2.05 7.23 down from 2022 | 347 | 78% | $2,487 | ||
4Journal of Field ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.03Q1 | 1.87 0.39 down from 2022 | 124 | 34% | — | ||
5Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyElsevier BV · United States | 1.75Q1 | 2.47 0.26 down from 2022 | 238 | 53% | $3,370 | ||
6Cambridge Archaeological JournalCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.41Q1 | 1.94 0.45 up from 2022 | 158 | 93% | $3,550 | ||
7GeobiologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.32Q1 | 3.28 0.47 down from 2022 | 148 | 67% | $4,880 | ||
8Journal of PalaeogeographyOAElsevier BV · China | 1.25Q1 | 2.66 1.12 down from 2022 | 101 | 100% | $1,500 | ||
9AntiquityCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.23Q1 | 1.64 0.23 up from 2022 | 607 | 73% | $3,550 | ||
10PalaeontologyWiley · United Kingdom | 1.23Q1 | 2.76 0.41 down from 2022 | 122 | 78% | $5,000 | ||
11Swiss Journal of PalaeontologyOASpringer Nature · Switzerland | 1.23Q1 | 2.96 0.63 down from 2022 | 55 | 100% | $1,340 | ||
12Zoological Journal of the Linnean SocietyOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 1.22Q1 | 3.41 0.56 up from 2022 | 407 | 79% | $3,541 | ||
13American AntiquityCambridge University Press · United States | 1.21Q1 | 2.19 0.33 down from 2022 | 153 | 32% | $3,550 | ||
14European Journal of ArchaeologyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.16Q1 | 1.28 0.06 up from 2022 | 100 | 60% | $3,550 | ||
15Journal of Systematic PalaeontologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.12Q1 | 2.55 0.07 up from 2022 | 126 | 32% | — | ||
16Journal of Archaeological Science ReportsElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.10Q1 | 1.57 0.20 down from 2022 | 1,438 | 52% | $2,910 | ||
17PaleobiologyCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.06Q1 | 2.58 0.26 down from 2022 | 147 | 91% | $3,550 | ||
18Papers in PalaeontologyWiley · United States | 1.05Q1 | 2.35 0.01 down from 2022 | 149 | 68% | $4,480 | ||
19Archaeological Research in AsiaElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.02Q1 | 1.36 0.07 down from 2022 | 152 | 27% | $2,750 | ||
20Open ArchaeologyOADe Gruyter Open · Poland | 1.00Q1 | 1.35 0.23 up from 2022 | 177 | 100% | $848 | ||
21Norwegian Archaeological ReviewRoutledge · Norway | 0.99Q2 | 0.88 0.24 up from 2022 | 55 | 57% | — | ||
22Vegetation History and ArchaeobotanySpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.94Q2 | 2.31 0.28 down from 2022 | 132 | 69% | $3,790 | ||
23Journal of Mammalian EvolutionSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.92Q2 | 1.77 0.38 down from 2022 | 145 | 39% | $3,790 | ||
24Fossil recordOAWiley · Germany | 0.90Q2 | 1.90 0.08 down from 2022 | 68 | 100% | $1,240 | ||
25Journal of AnatomyWiley · United Kingdom | 0.87Q2 | 2.18 0.19 down from 2022 | 602 | 92% | $4,050 | ||
26Paläontologische ZeitschriftSpringer Nature · Germany | 0.83Q2 | 1.89 0.41 down from 2022 | 135 | 64% | $3,190 | ||
27Ñawpa PachaTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.82Q2 | 1.33 0.71 up from 2022 | 34 | 0% | — | ||
28GeobiosElsevier BV · France | 0.82Q2 | 2.06 0.16 up from 2022 | 98 | 37% | $3,030 | ||
29LethaiaOAWiley · Norway | 0.81Q2 | 2.12 0.73 up from 2022 | 117 | 100% | $3,300 | ||
30Palaeontologia ElectronicaOAUnited States | 0.81Q2 | 2.03 0.07 up from 2022 | 133 | 100% | — | ||
31Environmental ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.81Q2 | 1.42 0.33 down from 2022 | 122 | 48% | — | ||
32Newsletters on StratigraphyGebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung · Germany | 0.81Q2 | 1.95 0.19 up from 2022 | 59 | 53% | — | ||
33Journal of Vertebrate PaleontologyTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.75Q2 | 1.62 0.06 up from 2022 | 315 | 37% | — | ||
34Cretaceous ResearchElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 0.75Q2 | 1.78 0.39 down from 2022 | 783 | 28% | $3,560 | ||
35Latin American AntiquityCambridge University Press · United States | 0.71Q2 | 0.87 0.16 down from 2022 | 220 | 39% | $3,550 | ||
36Acta Palaeontologica PolonicaOAInstitute of Paleobiology · Poland | 0.71Q2 | 1.51 0.07 up from 2022 | 180 | 100% | $23 | ||
37The Anatomical RecordWiley · United States | 0.71Q2 | 2.12 0.13 up from 2022 | 653 | 76% | $4,430 | ||
38PalaeoworldElsevier BV · Netherlands | 0.68Q2 | 1.70 0.22 up from 2022 | 195 | 25% | $3,000 | ||
39PalaiosSociety for Sedimentary Geology · United States | 0.68Q2 | 1.53 0.33 down from 2022 | 119 | 17% | — | ||
40GeodiversitasOAMuséum national d'histoire naturelle · France | 0.67Q3 | 1.40 0.83 down from 2022 | 90 | 81% | — | ||
41Netherlands Journal of Geosciences – Geologie en MijnbouwCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 0.66Q3 | 2.39 0.30 down from 2022 | 49 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
42Subterranean BiologyOAPensoft Publishers · France | 0.66Q3 | 1.52 0.30 up from 2022 | 90 | 100% | — | ||
43FaciesSpringer Science+Business Media · Germany | 0.65Q3 | 1.91 0.42 up from 2022 | 72 | 63% | $2,490 | ||
44Historical BiologyTaylor & Francis · Switzerland | 0.65Q3 | 1.33 0.25 down from 2022 | 631 | 21% | — | ||
45Comptes Rendus PalevolOAMuséum national d'histoire naturelle · France | 0.62Q3 | 1.11 0.01 up from 2022 | 101 | 100% | — | ||
46Journal of MorphologyWiley · United States | 0.60Q3 | 1.69 0.01 down from 2022 | 327 | 63% | $4,220 | ||
47Alcheringa An Australasian Journal of PalaeontologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.60Q3 | 1.30 0.11 down from 2022 | 90 | 63% | — | ||
48Southeastern ArchaeologyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 0.58Q3 | 0.67 0.01 down from 2022 | 68 | 4% | — | ||
49Palaeobiodiversity and PalaeoenvironmentsSpringer Nature · Germany | 0.57Q3 | 1.48 0.33 down from 2022 | 152 | 64% | $3,190 | ||
50Bulletin of GeosciencesOACzechia | 0.56Q3 | 1.31 0.52 down from 2022 | 69 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Earth and Planetary Sciences, with Paleontology highlighted.
- Geophysics145
- Atmospheric Science90
- Paleontology77
- Oceanography50
- Earth-Surface Processes16
- Geology9
- Geochemistry and Petrology6
- Space and Planetary Science3
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.
20 additional Paleontology 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
- 77
- Window papers (baseline)
- 19,925 -0.1% from indicator year 2020
- Median OJR
- 0.68 -18.5% from indicator year 2020
- Rising journals (2025)
- 5
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 | 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.