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
Water Science and Technology journal rankings 2023
104 ranked journals · Subfield in Environmental Science
Water Science and Technology has 104 ranked journals in 2023. The median journal has an OJR of 0.66, below the world average of 1.00, up 0.01 on 2022; Q1 starts at OJR 1.22. The top three are npj Clean Water, Energy Nexus, and HydroResearch.
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 Environmental Science (11)
104 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1npj Clean WaterOANature Portfolio · United Kingdom | 2.97Q1 | 12.57 0.64 down from 2022 | 154 | 100% | $3,890 | ||
2Energy NexusOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.80Q1 | 11.59 5.14 up from 2022 | 153 | 100% | $2,200 | ||
3HydroResearchOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 2.14Q1 | 5.95 3.09 down from 2022 | 36 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
4Advanced MembranesOAElsevier BV · China | 2.07Q1 | 7.73 0.44 up from 2022 | 37 | 100% | $0 listed | ||
5Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental EngineeringOAElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 2.03Q1 | 8.42 1.46 down from 2022 | 282 | 100% | $760 | ||
6Applied Water ScienceOASpringer Nature · Germany | 1.82Q1 | 6.71 0.31 down from 2022 | 723 | 100% | $2,490 | ||
7Water Resources ResearchOAWiley · United States | 1.77Q1 | 5.92 1.16 down from 2022 | 2,004 | 94% | $3,000 | ||
8ACS ES&T EngineeringAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.76Q1 | 7.92 0.64 up from 2022 | 370 | 19% | $4,500 | ||
9Hydrology and earth system sciencesOACopernicus Publications · Germany | 1.74Q1 | 7.13 1.33 down from 2022 | 961 | 100% | $1,725 | ||
10Journal of Membrane ScienceElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.73Q1 | 8.66 0.50 down from 2022 | 2,883 | 28% | $4,890 | ||
11Separation and Purification TechnologyElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.72Q1 | 8.71 0.31 up from 2022 | 5,859 | 14% | $4,060 | ||
12DesalinationElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.65Q1 | 8.78 1.13 down from 2022 | 1,517 | 22% | $4,580 | ||
13Journal of environmental chemical engineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.65Q1 | 8.02 0.33 down from 2022 | 5,544 | 17% | $3,350 | ||
14Environmental Nanotechnology Monitoring & ManagementElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.59Q1 | 7.98 0.99 up from 2022 | 489 | 13% | $3,650 | ||
15ResourcesOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 1.58Q1 | 5.10 0.59 up from 2022 | 402 | 100% | $1,930 | ||
16Separation and Purification ReviewsTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.55Q1 | 5.87 0.07 up from 2022 | 67 | 24% | — | ||
17Water Resources and IndustryOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.50Q1 | 6.40 0.44 up from 2022 | 71 | 100% | $3,613 | ||
18Journal of Hydrology Regional StudiesOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.44Q1 | 5.52 0.18 down from 2022 | 649 | 100% | $2,600 | ||
19Journal of Water Process EngineeringElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.44Q1 | 7.18 0.30 down from 2022 | 2,310 | 19% | $3,350 | ||
20Water CycleOAElsevier BV · China | 1.38Q1 | 4.85 3.60 down from 2022 | 51 | 100% | $1,100 | ||
21Journal of Membrane Science LettersOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.37Q1 | 5.45 2.05 up from 2022 | 33 | 100% | $1,310 | ||
22Sustainable Environment ResearchOABioMed Central · China | 1.36Q1 | 5.72 0.66 down from 2022 | 117 | 100% | $1,990 | ||
23Aquacultural EngineeringElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.36Q1 | 4.14 0.73 down from 2022 | 186 | 44% | $3,500 | ||
24Water-Energy NexusOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.28Q1 | 4.63 1.35 down from 2022 | 46 | 100% | $900 | ||
25Environmental Technology ReviewsTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.27Q1 | 5.39 0.33 down from 2022 | 42 | 20% | — | ||
26Air Soil and Water ResearchOASAGE Publishing · United States | 1.22Q1 | 4.11 1.17 down from 2022 | 110 | 100% | $2,650 | ||
27Adsorption Science & TechnologyOASAGE Publishing · United Kingdom | 1.17Q2 | 4.98 1.86 up from 2022 | 311 | 100% | $1,500 | ||
28ACS ES&T WaterAmerican Chemical Society · United States | 1.15Q2 | 5.13 0.39 down from 2022 | 554 | 27% | $4,500 | ||
29Frontiers in WaterOAFrontiers Media · Switzerland | 1.14Q2 | 3.79 0.59 down from 2022 | 482 | 100% | $1,418 | ||
30Minerals EngineeringElsevier BV · United Kingdom | 1.13Q2 | 5.22 0.31 up from 2022 | 1,382 | 29% | $4,220 | ||
31Journal of Hydrology XOAElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.12Q2 | 4.09 0.47 down from 2022 | 66 | 100% | $2,300 | ||
32Hydrological Sciences JournalTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.02Q2 | 3.50 0.81 down from 2022 | 510 | 56% | — | ||
33Environmental ProcessesSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 1.02Q2 | 4.24 1.10 down from 2022 | 190 | 31% | $2,390 | ||
34WaterOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.99Q2 | 3.65 0.44 down from 2022 | 11,359 | 100% | $3,137 | ||
35HydrologyOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.99Q2 | 3.75 0.20 down from 2022 | 511 | 100% | $2,172 | ||
36Hydrological ProcessesWiley · United Kingdom | 0.95Q2 | 3.71 0.32 down from 2022 | 1,057 | 68% | $5,230 | ||
37Environmental Science Water Research & TechnologyRoyal Society of Chemistry · United Kingdom | 0.89Q2 | 3.26 1.32 down from 2022 | 658 | 36% | — | ||
38MembranesOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.88Q2 | 3.69 0.98 down from 2022 | 2,766 | 100% | $2,654 | ||
39International Journal of Environmental Science and TechnologySpringer Science+Business Media · Iran | 0.88Q2 | 3.49 0.22 down from 2022 | 2,078 | 18% | $3,490 | ||
40JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources AssociationWiley · United States | 0.85Q2 | 3.32 0.53 up from 2022 | 257 | 61% | $3,200 | ||
41Journal of Water Reuse and DesalinationOAIWA Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.82Q2 | 3.68 0.33 up from 2022 | 121 | 100% | $2,150 | ||
42SeparationsOAMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland | 0.82Q2 | 2.95 0.05 up from 2022 | 794 | 100% | $3,137 | ||
43Australasian Journal of Water ResourcesTaylor & Francis · Australia | 0.76Q2 | 2.84 0.39 down from 2022 | 67 | 69% | — | ||
44Water ScienceOATaylor & Francis · Egypt | 0.76Q2 | 2.27 0.62 down from 2022 | 50 | 100% | — | ||
45International Journal of Environmental ResearchSpringer Science+Business Media · Iran | 0.76Q2 | 2.76 0.75 down from 2022 | 253 | 25% | $3,790 | ||
46International Journal of River Basin ManagementTaylor & Francis | 0.75Q2 | 2.52 0.13 up from 2022 | 149 | 16% | — | ||
47Sustainable Water Resources ManagementSpringer Science+Business Media · Switzerland | 0.75Q2 | 2.67 0.16 up from 2022 | 448 | 20% | $3,190 | ||
48H2Open JournalOAIWA Publishing · United Kingdom | 0.72Q2 | 2.28 0.62 down from 2022 | 108 | 100% | — | ||
49Environmental Engineering ResearchOAKorean Society of Environmental Engineering · South Korea | 0.71Q2 | 2.49 0.28 down from 2022 | 340 | 100% | — | ||
50Journal of Chemical Technology & BiotechnologyWiley · United Kingdom | 0.71Q2 | 3.13 0.27 down from 2022 | 935 | 50% | $4,100 |
Subfields of Environmental Science, with Water Science and Technology highlighted.
- Ecology296
- Global and Planetary Change236
- Water Science and Technology104
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis97
- Pollution67
- Nature and Landscape Conservation56
- Environmental Engineering49
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law49
- Waste Management and Disposal21
- Ecological Modeling9
- Environmental Chemistry8
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.
29 additional Water Science and Technology 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
- 104
- Window papers (baseline)
- 85,893 +14.0% from indicator year 2020
- Median OJR
- 0.664 +1.3% from indicator year 2020
- Rising journals (2025)
- 6
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 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 39 | 41 | 43 | 46 | 47 | 49 | 52 | 58 | 66 | 67 | 72 | 82 | 87 | 95 | 101 | 103 | 97 | 101 | 101 | 103 | 104 | 103 | 103 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 14,781 | 17,791 | 20,498 | 23,486 | 25,734 | 28,549 | 32,247 | 36,403 | 40,771 | 44,936 | 50,005 | 54,989 | 59,878 | 63,966 | 68,372 | 71,167 | 71,057 | 68,448 | 68,167 | 70,866 | 75,349 | 79,702 | 82,811 | 85,893 | 88,063 | 92,086 | |
| Median OJR | 0.596 | 0.603 | 0.650 | 0.663 | 0.62 | 0.651 | 0.684 | 0.514 | 0.50 | 0.45 | 0.47 | 0.512 | 0.645 | 0.590 | 0.53 | 0.54 | 0.61 | 0.589 | 0.57 | 0.597 | 0.656 | 0.677 | 0.654 | 0.664 | 0.70 | 0.75 |
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.