Water Science and Technology · 205 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Water Science and Technology

The top 40 of 205 Water Science and Technology journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by whether OpenAlex and Scimago agree on the subject and how central Water Science and Technology is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), leaving out journals both place in another discipline, 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.

  1. 1
    Water Research
    13.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  2. 2
    Desalination
    10.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  3. 3
    Hydrology and earth system sciences
    8.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  4. 4
    Groundwater for Sustainable Development
    8.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  5. 5
    Journal of Water Process Engineering
    7.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  6. 6
    Journal of Hydrology
    7.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  7. 7
    Applied Water Science
    7.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Nature
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  8. 8
    Environmental Technology & Innovation
    6.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  9. 9
    Water Resources Management
    5.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  10. 10
    Environmental Nanotechnology Monitoring & Management
    5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusPubMed
  11. 11
    ACS ES&T Water
    4.6 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  12. 12
    Water
    4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  13. 13
    Environmental Earth Sciences
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  14. 14
    Frontiers in Water
    4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Frontiers Media
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  15. 15
    Hydrology research
    3.6 cites/paper · Q1 · IWA Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
  16. 16
    Hydrology
    3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  17. 17
    Hydrological Sciences Journal
    3.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  18. 18
    Hydrological Processes
    2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  19. 19
    Environmental Science Water Research & Technology
    2.9 cites/paper · Q1 · Royal Society of Chemistry
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  20. 20
    Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies
    2.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  21. 21
    JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association
    2.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  22. 22
    Ground Water
    1.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  23. 23
    Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology
    13.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  24. 24
    Water Resources Research
    7.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  25. 25
    Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  26. 26
    Environmental Geochemistry and Health
    4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  27. 27
    Hydrogeology Journal
    2.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  28. 28
    Environmental Chemistry Letters
    32.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  29. 29
    Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering
    9.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusPubMed
  30. 30
    ACS ES&T Engineering
    6.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Chemical Society
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  31. 31
    Journal of environmental chemical engineering
    6.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  32. 32
    Chemical Engineering Journal Advances
    4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  33. 33
    International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
    4.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  34. 34
    Physics and Chemistry of the Earth Parts A
    3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  35. 35
    Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology
    2.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  36. 36
    Adsorption Science & Technology
    2.5 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
    Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  37. 37
    Journal of Hazardous Materials
    10.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  38. 38
    Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering
    9.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Higher Education Press
    ScopusPubMed
  39. 39
    Environmental Modelling & Software
    5.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
  40. 40
    Journal of Environmental Sciences
    4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
    ScopusWeb 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.

Part of best journals for Earth Science.

Best journals in other disciplines

Frequently asked

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Water Science and Technology journals include Water Research, Desalination, Hydrology and earth system sciences, Groundwater for Sustainable Development, Journal of Water Process Engineering. The top 40 of 205 ranked venues are listed on this page; all 40 are Scimago Q1. Each shows its open-access status and indexing, and predatory venues are excluded. For a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

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