World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Ecological Indicators
H-index 76

Ecological Indicators

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Ecology and Evolution 22 1054 1161 50
Environmental Sciences 43 573 803 59

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 2323
Documents by Best Scientists*: 2376
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 54
SCIMAGO H-index: 204
SCIMAGO SJR: 1.959
Impact Factor: 7.4

Overview

Top Research Topics at Ecological Indicators?

The main points discussed in the journal deals with Ecology, Environmental resource management, Ecosystem, Habitat and Biodiversity. Topics like Species richness, Abundance (ecology), Benthic zone, Vegetation and Water quality are tackled as part of the discussions on Ecology. Most of the works presented in it deals with Species richness but it intersects with the subject of Species diversity.

The Vegetation research presented in the journal explores the relationship between Physical geography and the closely related topic of Climate change. The Water quality research discussed is included in the broader subject of Hydrology. While work presented in Ecological Indicators provided substantial information on Environmental resource management, it also covered topics in Land use, Ecosystem services, Ecological indicator, Sustainable development and Sustainability.

Land cover is a focus of the presented Land use works and it dives deep in Land cover. Ecological Indicators links adjacent topics like Sustainability with Environmental economics. It explores topics in Ecosystem which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Biomass (ecology) and Wetland.

  • Ecology (38.30%)
  • Environmental resource management (16.61%)
  • Ecosystem (15.06%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies (1563 citations)
  • Mapping ecosystem service supply, demand and budgets (1100 citations)
  • Challenges in the development and use of ecological indicators (981 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Ecological Indicators:

The published papers mainly tackle studies in Ecology, Environmental resource management, Sustainability, Ecosystem and Ecosystem services. The most cited papers tackle issues in Ecology, particularly in the topics of Species richness, Habitat, Biodiversity, Abundance (ecology) and Water quality. The journal papers hold forums on Environmental resource management that merge themes from other disciplines such as Ecosystem health, Land use, Ecological indicator, Sustainable development and Environmental economics.

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Ecological Indicators (based on the number of publications) are:

  • João Carlos Marques (94 papers) published 7 papers at the last edition, 3 more than at the previous edition,
  • Angel Borja (35 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • João M. Neto (32 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition, 1 more than at the previous edition,
  • Henrique N. Cabral (30 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Luca Salvati (23 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Ecological Indicators (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (718 papers) published 203 papers at the last edition, 64 more than at the previous edition,
  • Beijing Normal University (224 papers) published 46 papers at the last edition, 16 more than at the previous edition,
  • University of Coimbra (139 papers) published 11 papers at the last edition, 2 more than at the previous edition,
  • Spanish National Research Council (131 papers) published 14 papers at the last edition, 7 less than at the previous edition,
  • United States Geological Survey (120 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition, 8 more than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 8.68% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 24.70% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 6.97% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 14.81% of all publications and 53.52% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • Invasive alien plant species: Their impact on environment, ecosystem services and human health.

    Prabhat Kumar Rai;J.S. Singh

    (2020)
    541 Citations
  • Coupling coordination analysis of rural production-living-ecological space in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

    Yuanyuan Yang;Wenkai Bao;Yansui Liu

    (2020)
    321 Citations
  • Distinguishing the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic factors on vegetation dynamics in the Yangtze River Basin, China

    Sai Qu;Lunche Wang;Aiwen Lin;Deqing Yu

    (2020)
    307 Citations
  • Potential toxic elements in sediment of some rivers at Giresun, Northeast Turkey: A preliminary assessment for ecotoxicological status and health risk

    Fikret Ustaoğlu;Md. Saiful Islam;Md. Saiful Islam

    (2020)
    300 Citations
  • Integrated phenology and climate in rice yields prediction using machine learning methods

    Yahui Guo;Yongshuo Fu;Fanghua Hao;Xuan Zhang

    (2021)
    263 Citations
  • Construction and optimization strategy of ecological security pattern in a rapidly urbanizing region: A case study in central-south China

    Unknown

    (2022)
    235 Citations
  • Spatio-temporal changes of ecological vulnerability across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

    Mu Xia;Kun Jia;Wenwu Zhao;Shiliang Liu

    (2021)
    201 Citations
  • The coupling curve between urbanization and the eco-environment: China’s urban agglomeration as a case study

    Chuanglin Fang;Haimeng Liu;Shaojian Wang

    (2021)
    154 Citations

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