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Biology · 1,232 journals indexed

Best open-access journals for Biology

The top Biology journals open-access only, ranked by Scimago quartile then cites/paper, 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 →
AllBest open-access journalsHighest-impact journals
  1. 1
    CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
    222.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
    41.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    Journal of Hematology & Oncology
    26.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Molecular Cancer
    22.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
    17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    15.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Canadian Medical Association
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    Nature Communications
    14.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Molecular Neurodegeneration
    14.3 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    Nucleic Acids Research
    12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery
    12.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery
    Open AccessScopus
  11. 11
    Gut Microbes
    12.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Landes Bioscience
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    Experimental & Molecular Medicine
    11.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  13. 13
    Microbiome
    11.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  14. 14
    Journal of Biomedical Science
    11.4 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    Journal of Nanobiotechnology
    10.9 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  16. 16
    Redox Biology
    10.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  17. 17
    Cell Discovery
    10.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  18. 18
    Science Advances
    10.4 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  19. 19
    The Lancet Microbe
    10.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  20. 20
    Genome Medicine
    10.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  21. 21
    Cell Reports Medicine
    9.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  22. 22
    Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
    9.8 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  23. 23
    Bioactive Materials
    9.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  24. 24
    FEMS Microbiology Reviews
    9.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  25. 25
    Pharmacological Research
    8.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  26. 26
    Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters
    8.6 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  27. 27
    Cell Death Discovery
    8.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Journal of Neuroinflammation
    8.6 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    Cell Communication and Signaling
    8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  30. 30
    British Journal of Biomedical Science
    8.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    The ISME Journal
    8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Journal of Clinical Investigation
    8.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Society for Clinical Investigation
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    Genome biology
    7.9 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
    7.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    EBioMedicine
    7.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  36. 36
    International Journal of Biological Sciences
    7.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Ivyspring International Publisher
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    Alzheimer s Research & Therapy
    7.7 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  38. 38
    npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  39. 39
    Cell Death and Disease
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  40. 40
    International Journal of Nanomedicine
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Dove Medical 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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