World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Ecology
H-index 52

Ecology

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Ecology and Evolution 20 1385 1058 52

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 1578
Documents by Best Scientists*: 1101
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 39
SCIMAGO H-index: 345
SCIMAGO SJR: 2.04
Impact Factor: 4.3

Overview

Top Research Topics at Ecology?

The journal primarily tackles Ecology, Predation, Habitat, Ecosystem and Botany. Research on Ecology presented in the journal focuses, in particular, on Competition (biology), Herbivore, Species richness, Abundance (ecology) and Ecology (disciplines). Competition (biology) research discussed connects with the study of Interspecific competition.

Species richness research featured in Ecology incorporates concerns from various other topics such as Biodiversity and Species diversity. Ecology features Predation research that overlaps with concepts in Foraging. Research on Ecosystem addressed in Ecology frequently intersections with the field of Biomass (ecology).

  • Ecology (97.55%)
  • Predation (9.32%)
  • Habitat (8.37%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Measures of the Amount of Ecologic Association Between Species (7981 citations)
  • The Problem of Pattern and Scale in Ecology: The Robert H. MacArthur Award Lecture (5421 citations)
  • Canonical Correspondence Analysis: A New Eigenvector Technique for Multivariate Direct Gradient Analysis (4839 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Ecology:

The published articles investigate areas of study like Ecology, Predation, Habitat, Ecosystem and Species richness. The most cited publications focus on Ecology research which is adjacent to topics in Botany. The most cited publications facilitate discussions on Species richness that incorporate concepts from other fields like Biodiversity and Species diversity.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Ecology
  • Botany
  • Genus

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

Ecology primarily focuses on research topics in Ecology, Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Biomass (ecology) and Range (biology). Ecology focuses on different Ecology studies like Predation, Habitat, Abundance (ecology), Herbivore and Competition (biology). Topics in Abundance (ecology) were tackled in line with various other fields like Species richness and Introduced species.

Niche and Interspecific competition are some topics wherein Competition (biology) research discussed in Ecology have an impact. It explores topics in Ecosystem which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Trophic level, Productivity (ecology) and Abiotic component. The studies in Biomass (ecology) featured incorporate elements of Plant community, Nutrient and Seedling.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology. (9 citations)
  • Targeted plant defense: silicon conserves hormonal defense signaling impacting chewing but not fluid-feeding herbivores (9 citations)
  • Stress gradients and biodiversity: monoculture vulnerability drives stronger biodiversity effects during drought years. (9 citations)

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 Ecology (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Jack Major (149 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Charles C. Davis (69 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Mark D. Bertness (52 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Thomas G. Whitham (45 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • David Tilman (45 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition the same number as 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 Ecology (based on the number of publications) are:

  • University of California, Davis (430 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
  • University of Minnesota (238 papers) published 14 papers at the last edition, 1 more than at the previous edition,
  • University of California, Berkeley (235 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (233 papers) published 9 papers at the last edition, 2 more than at the previous edition,
  • Cornell University (227 papers) published 8 papers at the last edition, 2 less 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, 0.95% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 23.00% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 15.97% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 17.25% of all publications and 43.77% 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

  • A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology.

    Andrew T. Tredennick;Giles Hooker;Stephen P. Ellner;Peter B. Adler

    (2021)
    425 Citations
  • A scale-dependent framework for trade-offs, syndromes, and specialization in organismal biology

    Anurag A. Agrawal

    (2020)
    200 Citations
  • Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology.

    Lauren G. Shoemaker;Lauren G. Shoemaker;Lauren G. Shoemaker;Lauren L. Sullivan;Lauren L. Sullivan;Ian Donohue;Juliano S. Cabral

    (2020)
    188 Citations
  • Critical transition of soil bacterial diversity and composition triggered by nitrogen enrichment

    Weixing Liu;Lin Jiang;Sen Yang;Zhou Wang

    (2020)
    179 Citations
  • Biotic homogenization destabilizes ecosystem functioning by decreasing spatial asynchrony.

    Shaopeng Wang;Michel Loreau;Claire de Mazancourt;Forest Isbell

    (2021)
    147 Citations
  • EpiList 1.0: a global checklist of vascular epiphytes.

    Gerhard Zotz;Patrick Weigelt;Michael Kessler;Holger Kreft

    (2021)
    147 Citations
  • Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa

    Danaë M.A. Rozendaal;Oliver L. Phillips;Simon L. Lewis;Simon L. Lewis;Kofi Affum-Baffoe

    (2020)
    139 Citations
  • Eco-evolutionary dynamics of range expansion

    Tom E X Miller;Amy L Angert;Carissa D Brown;Julie A Lee-Yaw;Julie A Lee-Yaw

    (2020)
    125 Citations
  • Climate change influences mycorrhizal fungal–plant interactions, but conclusions are limited by geographical study bias

    Alison E. Bennett;Aimée T. Classen;Aimée T. Classen

    (2020)
    121 Citations
  • The potential and realized foraging movements of bees are differentially determined by body size and sociality

    (2022)
    109 Citations

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