ConservationBytes.com

A few years ago we wrote a bibliometric paper describing a new way to rank journals, and I still think it is one of the better ways to rank them based on a composite index of relative citation-based metrics . I apologise for taking so long to do the analysis this year, but it took Google Scholar a while to post their 2017 data.

So, here are the 2017 ranks for (i) 88 ecology, conservation and multidisciplinary journals, and a subset of (ii) 55 ‘ecology’ journals, (iii) 24 ‘conservation’ journals. Also this year, I’ve included two new categories — (iv) 38 ‘sustainability’ journals (with general and energy-focussed journals included), and 19 ‘marine & freshwater’ journals for you watery types.

See also the previous years’ rankings (2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008).

(i) ecology, conservation and multidisciplinary

Here’s a more focussed list of the top-20 journals from above:

Not much different to last year’s rankings except the PLoS Biology has lost a lot of ground.

(ii) ecology journals

For the leaders, things are similar to last year: Trends in Ecology and Evolution and Ecology Letters are still out in front, but Biological Reviews is slightly ahead of Ecology Letters. Global Change Ecology and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment are still rather strong.

Here’s a closer look at the top-20 from that last list:

(iii) conservation journals

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

This hasn’t changed much from last year, except that Conservation Biology  has nudged out Journal of Applied Ecology for third place.

(iv) sustainability journals

The ‘sustainability’ journals (including some general-category ones too):

(v) marine and freshwater journals

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CJA Bradshaw