Ecosystems

Ecosystems is published by Springer US and is in Zone 3 of Environmental Science & Ecology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies, Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics and Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology, together about 28.1% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

ECOSYSTEMS publishes papers that make general contributions to ecosystem science and will be of interest to a wide international audience. Ecosystem science involves research on ecosystem structure and processes; flows of organisms and materials within and among ecosystems; and structure, process, and change of landscapes and waterscapes. The scope of ecosystem science extends from bounded ecosystems (such as watersheds) to spatially complex landscapes and on to the Earth itself. An ecosystem is a defined area or volume that includes all the organisms, all parts of the abiotic environment, and their interactions within its boundaries. Topics of ecosystem-level research include flows of energy (including organic carbon) and materials (such as carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus) within ecosystems and across their boundaries, changes in these flows, and changes in biotic and abiotic structure and feedbacks over time. Ecosystem ecology also has strong links to other disciplines such as landscape ecology, global ecology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, conservation, and natural resource management. Landscape ecology addresses spatial dynamics and interactions among ecosystems, such as flows of organisms and materials across boundaries. Changes over time in spatial heterogeneity and lateral movements of organisms and material are thus also topics of ecosystem research. All of ecology occurs within or among ecosystems, but not all ecology is ecosystem research (S.G. Fisher 1997; DOI: 10.2307/1468020). For example, a study of the effect of the environment on the autecology, behavioral ecology or physiological ecology of a particular species is not within the scope of ECOSYSTEMS. Studies of population or community ecology, conservation biology, or biodiversity with no feedbacks to the abiotic environment or flow of energy and materials are also not within the scope of ECOSYSTEMS and will be returned without review. Finally, a single study should not be split up into several parts (i.e., ‘least publishable units’) to increase the quantity of submissions (i.e., ‘salami-slicing’). This practice is especially problematic for ecosystem-level studies that seek a holistic understanding of ecosystem structure and function. For more background on ecosystem and landscape science we suggest: Turner, M. G., and R. H. Gardner. 2015. Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice, Second ed. Springer-Verlag. Weathers, K. C., D. L. Strayer, and G. E. Likens. 2021. Fundamentals of Ecosys

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Ecology

Editor-in-chief Robert O. HallPublisher website

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 32, Germany 3, Australia 3, Sweden 3, Canada 2 (50 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

CASCAB AbstractsCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, AGRICOLA, Astrophysics Data System, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS

As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

3.19LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

3.3Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

4.2Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

8.5LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR 2026-06

1.42LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

1.21LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

131LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

209OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

2,277OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

2.75OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

3%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

42.58%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

86LetPub · 2026-09-13

Articles per year (publisher)

2,025Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Downloads per year (publisher) 2025

792,100Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Other sources

Average review time (community reports)

8–16 weeksLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

ModerateLetPub · 2026-09-13

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Springer US

Country or region

UNITED STATES

Language

English

Frequency

Bimonthly

Founded

1998

ISSN

1432-9840

Electronic ISSN

1435-0629

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗LetPub
• Submission system ↗LetPub
• Author guidelines ↗LetPub
• Special issues ↗Publisher website