Rising Environmental Science journals compared with their field
These are the Environmental Science journals whose OJR rose faster than the median journal of their field between 2022 and 2025, by +10% or more relative to that median and by at least 2 standard errors. 67 journals qualify.
Between indicator years 2022 and 2025, the median OJR change among 543 eligible Environmental Science journals was about -8%, taking the median on a log scale (the group ratio below).
Ordered by the lower bound of the relative-change range at two standard errors, highest first, then higher z (the signed difference in standard errors), then title. How trajectory is calculated (traj-v1)
| Journal | OJR 2022 → 2025 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. | Change relative to Environmental Science median (2 SE range) | z (standard errors) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desalination and Water Treatment | 0.30 → 0.75 | +168.0% (+145.5% to +192.6%) | 22.5 |
| Water Practice & Technology | 0.42 → 0.70 | +80.2% (+48.4% to +118.8%) | 6.1 |
| Nature Environment and Pollution Technology | 0.22 → 0.38 | +82.6% (+46.5% to +127.6%) | 5.5 |
| Journal of Plant Ecology | 0.80 → 1.62 | +120.2% (+42.0% to +241.5%) | 3.6 |
| Environmental Chemistry Letters | 3.70 → 5.56 | +62.6% (+32.5% to +99.6%) | 4.8 |
| International journal of greenhouse gas control | 1.19 → 1.63 | +48.8% (+30.2% to +70.0%) | 6.0 |
| Journal of Water and Climate Change | 0.78 → 1.09 | +50.8% (+28.8% to +76.6%) | 5.2 |
| Biodiversity Science | 0.33 → 0.47 | +52.7% (+25.8% to +85.3%) | 4.4 |
| Applied Geography | 2.19 → 2.91 | +44.4% (+25.0% to +66.7%) | 5.1 |
| Ecological Indicators | 2.14 → 2.57 | +30.2% (+23.4% to +37.3%) | 9.9 |
| Parasitology | 0.77 → 1.04 | +45.1% (+22.0% to +72.6%) | 4.3 |
| Landscape and Urban Planning | 2.84 → 3.58 | +36.9% (+21.5% to +54.2%) | 5.3 |
| Waterbirds | 0.14 → 0.25 | +87.6% (+20.6% to +191.9%) | 2.8 |
| Environmental Quality Management | 0.43 → 0.62 | +55.4% (+19.9% to +101.3%) | 3.4 |
| Toxicological Sciences | 1.13 → 1.53 | +47.3% (+18.5% to +83.2%) | 3.6 |
| Marine and Coastal Fisheries | 0.51 → 0.77 | +64.1% (+16.9% to +130.3%) | 2.9 |
| ICES Journal of Marine Science | 0.97 → 1.22 | +35.3% (+16.8% to +56.7%) | 4.1 |
| Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing | 0.37 → 0.54 | +60.3% (+16.0% to +121.4%) | 2.9 |
| Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC) revista de la Solcha | 0.18 → 0.33 | +98.6% (+15.3% to +242.0%) | 2.5 |
| The Lancet Planetary Health | 3.53 → 4.82 | +48.0% (+14.5% to +91.3%) | 3.1 |
| Antarctic Science | 0.44 → 0.65 | +60.2% (+14.3% to +124.5%) | 2.8 |
| Ocean & Coastal Management | 1.90 → 2.21 | +26.1% (+14.2% to +39.3%) | 4.7 |
| Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology | 1.42 → 1.88 | +43.4% (+13.9% to +80.6%) | 3.1 |
| Crustaceana | 0.14 → 0.20 | +55.9% (+13.0% to +115.1%) | 2.8 |
| Problemy Ekorozwoju | 0.83 → 1.30 | +68.7% (+12.1% to +153.8%) | 2.6 |
| Annals of Microbiology | 1.14 → 1.62 | +53.5% (+12.0% to +110.5%) | 2.7 |
| Urban forestry & urban greening | 1.89 → 2.16 | +23.9% (+11.4% to +37.7%) | 4.0 |
| Environmetrics | 0.38 → 0.63 | +76.5% (+10.6% to +181.7%) | 2.4 |
| Marine ornithology | 0.14 → 0.23 | +80.9% (+10.4% to +196.3%) | 2.4 |
| Environmental Challenges | 1.77 → 2.22 | +35.8% (+9.9% to +67.8%) | 2.9 |
| Minerals Engineering | 1.16 → 1.28 | +20.1% (+9.6% to +31.6%) | 4.0 |
| The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment | 1.41 → 1.72 | +31.8% (+9.1% to +59.2%) | 2.9 |
| Microbial Ecology | 1.28 → 1.48 | +25.8% (+8.1% to +46.3%) | 3.0 |
| Australian Journal of Environmental Education | 0.83 → 1.34 | +73.6% (+7.5% to +180.5%) | 2.3 |
| Water Science & Technology | 0.65 → 0.73 | +20.9% (+7.4% to +36.1%) | 3.2 |
| Current World Environment | 0.23 → 0.34 | +57.7% (+7.2% to +132.1%) | 2.4 |
| Water Science & Technology Water Supply | 0.52 → 0.58 | +21.6% (+6.9% to +38.3%) | 3.0 |
| Natural Hazards | 1.56 → 1.69 | +17.3% (+6.9% to +28.7%) | 3.4 |
| Ibis | 0.74 → 0.92 | +35.4% (+5.9% to +73.0%) | 2.5 |
| Geomicrobiology Journal | 0.66 → 0.89 | +45.9% (+5.9% to +100.9%) | 2.4 |
| Toxicology | 1.39 → 1.56 | +22.0% (+5.5% to +41.2%) | 2.7 |
| Urban Climate | 1.76 → 1.91 | +17.7% (+5.3% to +31.6%) | 2.9 |
| BioInvasions Records | 0.42 → 0.51 | +29.6% (+4.7% to +60.4%) | 2.4 |
| Water Research | 2.73 → 2.78 | +10.4% (+4.5% to +16.6%) | 3.6 |
| Reproductive Toxicology | 0.97 → 1.12 | +24.3% (+4.5% to +47.8%) | 2.5 |
| Environmental Science & Technology | 2.70 → 2.75 | +10.2% (+4.4% to +16.4%) | 3.6 |
| Environmental Monitoring and Assessment | 0.96 → 1.00 | +13.1% (+4.3% to +22.6%) | 3.0 |
| Habitat International | 3.87 → 4.38 | +22.5% (+4.2% to +44.0%) | 2.5 |
| Geology Ecology and Landscapes | 1.48 → 1.94 | +41.5% (+4.2% to +92.1%) | 2.3 |
| Environmental Biology of Fishes | 0.59 → 0.68 | +24.2% (+4.1% to +48.3%) | 2.5 |
| Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology | 1.10 → 1.29 | +27.6% (+4.1% to +56.4%) | 2.4 |
| Fisheries Research | 0.73 → 0.79 | +17.4% (+4.0% to +32.6%) | 2.6 |
| Forest Ecology and Management | 1.36 → 1.41 | +12.8% (+4.0% to +22.3%) | 3.0 |
| Global Change Biology | 4.07 → 4.32 | +14.8% (+3.8% to +26.8%) | 2.8 |
| Journal for Nature Conservation | 0.96 → 1.10 | +24.1% (+3.7% to +48.4%) | 2.4 |
| Parasitology International | 0.69 → 0.77 | +21.5% (+3.5% to +42.6%) | 2.4 |
| Wetlands | 0.73 → 0.83 | +23.1% (+3.4% to +46.6%) | 2.4 |
| Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety | 1.72 → 1.77 | +11.7% (+2.7% to +21.6%) | 2.6 |
| Engineering Geology | 3.35 → 3.49 | +13.0% (+2.5% to +24.4%) | 2.5 |
| African Journal of Ecology | 0.40 → 0.46 | +25.7% (+2.3% to +54.6%) | 2.2 |
| Environmental Sciences Europe | 1.64 → 1.94 | +27.7% (+2.3% to +59.5%) | 2.2 |
| Physics and Chemistry of the Earth Parts A/B/C | 1.19 → 1.31 | +19.4% (+1.5% to +40.5%) | 2.2 |
| Ecological Engineering | 1.33 → 1.40 | +13.9% (+0.9% to +28.6%) | 2.2 |
| Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C Toxicology & Pharmacology | 1.09 → 1.17 | +16.3% (+0.8% to +34.2%) | 2.1 |
| Austral Ecology | 0.58 → 0.68 | +25.7% (+0.01% to +58.0%) | 2.0 |
| Health & Place | 1.90 → 2.04 | +16.3% (+0.01% to +35.2%) | 2.0 |
| Avian Research | 0.73 → 0.85 | +25.6% (+0.01% to +57.7%) | 2.0 |
How to read this list
Relative change = journal OJR ratio ÷ median group ratio − 1. The journal ratio is its OJR in 2025 divided by its OJR in 2022. The group ratio is the median of those ratios among eligible journals of the field, taken on a log scale: with an even number of journals, it is the geometric mean of the two middle ratios rather than their average.
Indicator year 2022 counts citations to papers published 2019–2021; indicator year 2025 counts citations to papers published 2022–2024. The two publication cohorts do not overlap.
A journal is listed when it is ranked, its relative change is +10% or more, and the change is at least 2 standard errors above zero (z ≥ 2), so the low end of its two-standard-error range is zero or above.
Large relative changes often start from very low scores: the top journal’s OJR rose from 0.30 to 0.75, still below the world average of 1.00. Relative to the median journal of its field, its change was +168.0%.