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Molecular Biology · 293 journals indexed

Best open-access journals for Molecular Biology

The top Molecular Biology journals open-access only, ranked by Scimago quartile then cites/paper, drawn from an17,538-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
    Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
    41.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Molecular Cancer
    22.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
    17.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Nature Communications
    14.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Nucleic Acids Research
    12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    Gut Microbes
    12.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Landes Bioscience
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    Experimental & Molecular Medicine
    11.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Microbiome
    11.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    Journal of Biomedical Science
    11.4 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    Redox Biology
    10.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  11. 11
    Cell Discovery
    10.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    Science Advances
    10.4 cites/paper · Q1 · American Association for the Advancement of Science
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  13. 13
    Genome Medicine
    10.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  14. 14
    Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
    9.8 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    FEMS Microbiology Reviews
    9.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  16. 16
    Pharmacological Research
    8.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  17. 17
    Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters
    8.6 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  18. 18
    Cell Death Discovery
    8.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  19. 19
    Cell Communication and Signaling
    8.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  20. 20
    Genome biology
    7.9 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  21. 21
    International Journal of Biological Sciences
    7.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Ivyspring International Publisher
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  22. 22
    npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  23. 23
    Cell Death and Disease
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  24. 24
    MedComm
    7.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  25. 25
    Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B
    7.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  26. 26
    Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
    7.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  27. 27
    ACS Central Science
    7.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Cell Reports
    6.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Cell Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    GigaScience
    6.7 cites/paper · Q1 · University of Oxford
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  30. 30
    The EMBO Journal
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    Molecular Biology and Evolution
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Oxford University Press
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Journal of Translational Medicine
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · BioMed Central
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    Journal of Advanced Research
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    mAbs
    6.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Landes Bioscience
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    Protein & Cell
    6.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  36. 36
    JACS Au
    6.0 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    EMBO Molecular Medicine
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  38. 38
    Cancer Biology & Therapy
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  39. 39
    Molecular Systems Biology
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  40. 40
    Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    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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