WaterUnderground

What is the best journal to submit groundwater research this year?

What is the best journal to submit groundwater research this year?

We all know about the flaws of impact factors, including how they lead to citing recent research, self-citing etc. But I thought it would be handy to compile a list of journals where well-cited groundwater articles are most often published. Like it or not, I sometimes look up this information and I assume other people do to. The impact factor  is certainly not the only factor I use to decide where to submit but I thought it might be useful to list these journals all in one place.

Impact-statements

impact factor??? from www.myrkothum.com

I made the list by searching ‘groundwater’ on google scholar and listing articles published in the last ten years than have >100 citations. Then I compiled the impact factors from the 2014  Thomson Reuters journal citation reports. This list reminded me of the diversity of journals were well-cited groundwater papers appear and to shoot high. Here is the list, first alphabetically…

Advances in Water Resources 2.8
Chemosphere 3.5
Ecohydrology 2.6
Environmental Earth Science 1.6
Environmental Management 1.6
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 1.7
Environmental Science & Technology 5.5
Geophysical Research Letters 4.5
Groundwater 2.0
Hydrogeology Journal 1.7
Hydrological Processes 2.7
Hydrology and Earth Systems Science 3.6
Journal of Hydrology 2.7
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 1.8
Nature 42.4
Nature Climate Change 15.3
Nature Geoscience 11.7
PNAS 9.8
Science 31.5
Science of the Total Environment 3.2
Water Research 5.3
Water Resources Research 3.7

and now for the real number geeks, sorted by impact factor…

Nature 42.4
Science 31.5
Nature Climate Change 15.3
Nature Geoscience 11.7
PNAS 9.8
Environmental Science & Technology 5.5
Water Research 5.3
Geophysical Research Letters 4.5
Water Resources Research 3.7
Hydrology and Earth Systems Science 3.6
Chemosphere 3.5
Science of the Total Environment 3.2
Advances in Water Resources 2.8
Hydrological Processes 2.7
Journal of Hydrology 2.7
Ecohydrology 2.6
Groundwater 2.0
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 1.8
Hydrogeology Journal 1.7
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 1.7
Environmental Management 1.6
Environmental Earth Science 1.6

For such a new journal, I am amazed that HESS has such a high impact factor. Is it because of the open access?

Did I miss any important journals? Please let me know with your comments…

I am a hydrogeologist at University of Victoria, Canada who is interested in groundwater sustainability, mega-scale groundwater systems, groundwater recharge and discharge and fluid flow around geologic structures. My goal is fundamental and applied research and teaching to enable sustainable groundwater use.


3 Comments

  1. HI Tom,
    I would add, Environmental Modelling & Software to your list. There are over 790 papers within this journal that explicitly address groundwater modelling, applications, and techniques. Hydrogeologists will find helpful approaches from scientists in other fields that can be adapted to groundwater problems. Since it’s a consideration, the Journal has a relatively high impact factor at 4.5 this year.

    Reply
  2. Hi Tom,
    I would add Environmental Modelling and Software to the list. There are over 790 groundwater papers in the existing issues. The journal encourages submissions that relate advances in computational tools and applications from across various disciplines. Frequently, the articles from applications in other disciplines share techniques or approaches that can adapted to groundwater problems. Since impact factor is a consideration, EMS journal has a 4.5 this year. The journal may be a good fit for a groundwater modeler.

    Reply
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