ConservationBytes.com

Back in February I wrote about our new bibliometric paper describing a new way to rank journals, which I still contend is a fairer representation of relative citation-based rankings. Given that the technique requires ISI, Google Scholar and Scopus data to calculate the composite ranks, I had to wait for the last straggler (Google) to publish the 2015 values before I could present this year’s rankings to you. Google has finally done that.

So in what has become a bit of an annual tradition, I’m publishing the ranks of a mixed list of ecology, conservation and multidisciplinary disciplines that probably cover most of the journals you might be interested in comparing. Like for last year, I make no claims that this list is comprehensive or representative. For previous lists based on ISI Impact Factors (except 2014), see the following links (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013).

So here are the following rankings of (i) 84 ecology, conservation and multidisciplinary journals, and a subset of (ii) 42 ecology journals, (iii) 21 conservation journals, and (iv) 12 marine and freshwater journals.

(i) ecology, conservation and multidisciplinary

Here’s a more focussed list of the top-25 journals from above:

One of the interesting things here compared to last year’s rankings is the steady rise of Nature Communications.

(ii) ecology journals

For the leaders, there are no surprises: Trends in Ecology and Evolution and Ecology Letters are still way out in front. However, Methods in Ecology and Evolution continues to rise, and Journal of Applied Ecology is now slightly ahead of Ecology.

(iii) conservation journals

Here’s probably the most interesting list for CB.com readers:

Of particular note here is the continuing rise of Biological Conservation, the continuing strong performance of Ambio and the maintained dominance of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and Conservation Letters (the latter is something for which I can claim a bit of credit).

(iv) marine and freshwater

Finally, for my wetter colleagues, here’s a ranked list of marine and freshwater ecology/conservation journals:

Fish and Fisheries is, and has been for a while, one of the dominants here, but the review journal Annual Review in Marine Science is the clear winner.

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CJA Bradshaw