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Biology · 1,434 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best open-access journals for Biology

The top 40 of 1,434 Biology journals, open-access only, ranked with primary-Biology journals first, then by Scimago quartile and OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), drawn from a 17,500-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded; the FAQ below gives the exact ranking rule. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder (a free account starts with 25 welcome credits).

Data as of — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

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AllBest open-access journals
  1. 1
    Molecular Cancer
    29.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
    20.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    Nature Communications
    18.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Nucleic Acids Research
    17.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Gut Microbes
    17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Landes Bioscience
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    Microbiome
    15.1 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    FEMS Microbiology Reviews
    15.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Experimental & Molecular Medicine
    14.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    Redox Biology
    14.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    Cell Discovery
    14.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  11. 11
    Science Advances
    13.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
    12.9 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  13. 13
    Cell Death Discovery
    11.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  14. 14
    Pharmacological Research
    11.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    Genome Medicine
    10.9 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  16. 16
    Journal of Neuroinflammation
    10.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  17. 17
    International Journal of Biological Sciences
    10.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Ivyspring International Publisher
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  18. 18
    Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters
    10.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  19. 19
    npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
    10.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  20. 20
    Cell Communication and Signaling
    10.3 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  21. 21
    Genome biology
    10.2 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  22. 22
    GigaScience
    10.1 cites/paper · Q1 · University of Oxford
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  23. 23
    Plant Communications
    9.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  24. 24
    Cell Death and Disease
    9.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  25. 25
    Journal of Advanced Research
    9.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  26. 26
    Heliyon
    9.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  27. 27
    Molecular Biology and Evolution
    9.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Plant Biotechnology Journal
    9.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    Cell Reports
    8.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  30. 30
    The EMBO Journal
    8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    Current Research in Food Science
    8.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Protein & Cell
    8.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    Gels
    8.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    Molecular Systems Biology
    8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology
    8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  36. 36
    Plant Stress
    7.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    Microbial Cell Factories
    7.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  38. 38
    Agricultural Water Management
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  39. 39
    Geoderma
    7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  40. 40
    LWT
    7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    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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Frequently asked

Molecular Cancer, Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, Gut Microbes lead this list, drawn from a 17,500-venue index. The top 40 of 1,434 ranked venues are listed on this page; all 40 are Scimago Q1. Journals whose primary OpenAlex field is Biology are ranked first, by Scimago quartile (Q1 → Q4, then journals without one) and then by OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window; journals that list Biology only as a secondary field come after them. Where cites/paper decides, a journal with fewer than 30 papers in OpenAlex over the four most recent publication years is listed after those with more: a two-year average over so few papers can rest on a single article (10 of the 1,434 journals ranked here are below that floor; none of them is among the 40 shown). Only open-access venues are included. Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded. For a match to your specific paper use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

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