What are the best journals for Biology?

From an 88,000-venue index, the highest-ranked Biology journals (by Scimago quartile then OpenAlex cites/paper) include CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Cell, Chemical Society Reviews. Predatory venues are excluded. The full ranked list with open-access and indexing details is on this page; for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the free Journal Recommender.

How were these Biology journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4), then by OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window. Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor. We exclude journals flagged as predatory.

Why don't all Biology journals show a quartile?

Scimago doesn't cover every journal — many strong regional and open-access venues are absent from it. We show "no Scimago quartile" for those rather than hide them; it's a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

How do I find the best journal for my specific Biology paper?

Paste your title and abstract into the free Journal Recommender — it returns a shortlist matched to your paper's topic from the same index, with acceptance-fit signals, open-access status, and predatory flags. No signup required.

Biology · 3,379 journals indexed

Best journals for Biology

The top Biology journals ranked by Scimago quartile, then cites/paper (OpenAlex, 2-year window), drawn from an 88,000-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the free Journal Finder.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals Highest-impact journals

1
CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
222.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
41.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
35.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
Cell
33.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Chemical Society Reviews
33.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Royal Society of Chemistry
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
Nature Reviews Microbiology
26.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
Journal of Hematology & Oncology
26.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Cancer Cell
26.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
Nature Medicine
25.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Pharmacological Reviews
24.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
Cell Metabolism
23.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
22.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
13
Molecular Cancer
22.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Nature reviews. Cancer
19.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Nature Machine Intelligence
18.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Nature Methods
17.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Nature Protocols
16.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Endocrine Reviews
16.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Nature Chemistry
15.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Nature Neuroscience
15.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
Accounts of Chemical Research
15.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
23
Cell stem cell
15.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
15.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Canadian Medical Association
Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Physiological Reviews
14.9 cites/paper · Q1 · American Physiological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
Nature Genetics
14.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
27
Clinical Microbiology Reviews
14.7 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society for Microbiology
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
Nature Reviews Genetics
14.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Nature Communications
14.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Molecular Neurodegeneration
14.3 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Nature Metabolism
14.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
Nature Microbiology
13.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
Nature Cell Biology
13.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
Ageing Research Reviews
13.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Nature Cancer
13.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
Nature Reviews Neurology
13.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
International Journal of Oncology
13.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Spandidos Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Nature Aging
12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Science Translational Medicine
12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
Nucleic Acids Research
12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed

“Cites/paper” is the OpenAlex 2-year citation rate — a transparent signal, not a licensed Impact Factor. Many regional and open-access journals are strong but aren’t covered by Scimago, so they show “no Scimago quartile”; that’s a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

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