Life

ISSN 2075-1729 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute · Switzerland · active 2011–2026

Metrics

Best Scimago quartile (2025)
Q1
Cites per paper (2y)
3.8
SJR
0.869
h-index
109

“Cites per paper” is a two-year cited-by rate computed from OpenAlex. It is not a Clarivate Journal Impact Factor — we neither compute nor license that metric (how the two differ). Citation rates differ enormously between fields, so compare within a discipline. What the other figures mean: journal quartile, SJR, h-index and article processing charge.

Data as of 25 October 2026 (venue index build).

Scimago Journal Rank 2025

In the Scimago Journal Rank 2025 edition, Life is Q1 in 2 of its 4 subject categories and Q2 in the other 2. Its best category quartile is Q1.

Scimago 2025 quartile and rank of Life in each subject category
Subject categoryQuartileRank in category
PaleontologyQ1#15 of 125
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and SystematicsQ1#130 of 752
Space and Planetary ScienceQ2#35 of 104
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)Q2#97 of 347
Cites per document (2 years, Scopus)
4.27
Documents indexed in 2025 (Scopus)
1,932

The quartile is the one Scimago prints for each category. Rank is the journal's position by SJR among the journals Scimago lists in that category (#1 is the highest); “—” means we hold no rank consistent with that quartile. The document count is what Scopus indexed that year, which can be lower than a journal's full output. Source: SCImago Journal Rank 2025 edition, from Scopus data (scimagojr.com, CC BY-NC).

Life is Q1 in 2 of its 4 Scimago subject categories (2025 edition; best category Paleontology: Q1, #15 of 125), with SJR 0.869 (Scimago) and an h-index of 109 (OpenAlex). Listed in DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed.

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Responding time

Submission to first decision
15 days (median)
Publisher-reported
Submission to acceptance
35 days (median)
Estimated from our library (51 papers)
Acceptance to publication
3 days (median)
Publisher-reported
Submission to publication
38 days (median)
Estimated from our library (51 papers)

Turnaround figures are indicative, not a guarantee: DOAJ values are self-reported by the journal (average weeks, submission to publication); library estimates are medians of the received/accepted dates printed in papers we hold. Editorial times vary by article type and season — confirm on the journal’s own site.

Indexing & access

Indexed in
DOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
Access status:
gold. Where this comes from publisher-level signals rather than works-level data it is a heuristic — confirm on the journal’s own site, especially regarding any article processing charge.
Article processing charge
Article processing charge (APC): 2,600 CHF per accepted article (DOAJ). Fee waivers are available.

Official journal site →

Scope

originsevolutionlifeastronomyastrophysicscovid-19clinicalinfectiousdiseasesrnaproteinsynthesis

Frequently asked

Is Life a predatory journal?

Our screening does not flag Life. That is not a guarantee of quality — it means the venue is not on Beall's archive (frozen since 2017) and does not match our name-pattern heuristic. It is listed in DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, which is a positive signal.

Is Life indexed in Scopus or Web of Science?

Per our venue index, Life appears in: DOAJ, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed. Index membership changes over time — confirm on the index's own site before relying on it.

What is the impact factor of Life?

Papers in Life are cited about 3.8 times each within two years of publication, and Scimago places it in Q1, with an h-index of 109. Those are the open equivalents: the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor is a proprietary metric we neither compute nor license, so we show the two-year citation rate and Scimago quartile instead — they answer the same question of how heavily the journal is cited. A citation rate is a property of a field as much as of a journal.

What Scimago quartile is Life (Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4)?

In the Scimago Journal Rank 2025 edition, Life is Q1 in 2 of its 4 subject categories and Q2 in the other 2. By category: Paleontology: Q1, #15 of 125; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics: Q1, #130 of 752; Space and Planetary Science: Q2, #35 of 104; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous): Q2, #97 of 347. Its best category quartile is Q1. Quartiles split the journals in a subject category into four equal groups by SJR, so Q1 is the most-cited quarter and Q4 the least; Life is cited about 3.8 times per paper over two years, with an h-index of 109.

What is the Web of Science (JCR) quartile of Life?

The Web of Science quartile comes from Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports (JCR), a proprietary product we neither license nor compute — so we cannot state a JCR quartile for Life. The open equivalent is its best Scimago quartile, Q1 in Paleontology and 1 other category, derived from Scopus citation data. Because JCR ranks against Web of Science and Scimago against Scopus, the two can differ, so check Clarivate's site directly if you need the JCR quartile specifically.

Is Life open access?

Our index records its access status as "gold". Where this is derived from publisher-level signals rather than works-level data it is a heuristic, so confirm on the journal's own site — particularly if an article processing charge matters to you.

What is the article processing charge (APC) to publish in Life?

Article processing charge (APC): 2,600 CHF per accepted article (DOAJ). Fee waivers are available. The exact charge can vary by article type and any fee waiver, so confirm the current amount on the journal's own site.

How long does Life take to publish a paper?

Submission to first decision for Life takes about 15 days (median) — Publisher-reported. Treat it as indicative rather than a guarantee: editorial times vary by article type, reviewer availability and season, and a self-reported figure is the journal's own. We do not hold a peer-review acceptance rate for Life.

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