Journal profile · Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Environmental DNA
ISSN 2637-4943 · Wiley · United Kingdom
Environmental DNA: CAS Zone 2 · Environmental Science & Ecology (2026 Xinrui edition); impact factor 5.8 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 3,170; median 188 days to acceptance (104 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 56% (journal website); 186 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Environmental DNA is published by Wiley and is classed under Environmental Science & Ecology in the CAS Journal Ranking. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies, Identification and Quantification in Food and Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology, together about 69% of its articles. Its main subfields are Ecology and Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Environmental DNA is a fully double-anonymous peer reviewed open access journal. The journal publishes high quality papers that pertain to the analyses of environmental DNA (eDNA) (including ancient DNA, non-invasive sampling, diet analyses, metabarcoding, metagenomics, microbial ecology and pathogens) and address questions of both basic and applied relevance. Research areas (and non-exclusive examples of applications) of interest to Environmental DNA include but are not limited to: ♦ Experimental eDNA work: Testing the impact of physico-chemical factors (e.g. natural biogeochemistry and PCR pollutants) on eDNA, degradation, transport, shedding and detection rate, comparing detection and abundance estimate with conventional methods. ♦ Trophic and community ecology, including analysis of bulk or community DNA: Ecosystem dynamics, functional diversity, predator-prey interactions (e.g. diet analysis), host-associated microbiota. ♦ Palaeo-environments: Past species and community diversity and abundance measurements, inference in space and time. ♦ Biomonitoring, conservation biology: Single- and multi-species detection, comprehensive biodiversity at different scales, abundance estimates, detection of rare, cryptic and endangered species, non-invasive sampling, management (e.g. fisheries), occurrence and detection estimates. ♦ Invasion biology: Early species detection at low abundance, passive surveillance, impacts on ecosystems, vectors and pathways of dispersal. ♦ Environmental assessment: Impacts of pollutants and other environmental disturbance on species and communities, microbial source tracking (fecal bacteria or pathogens). ♦ Physical eDNA properties: Uptake and transformation based on geochemistry, particles, organic chemistry or microbial community. ♦ Techniques and methods: Engineering development, developing, testing and evaluating eDNA biotechnology and biostatistical approaches. ♦ Applications in citizen science and biodiversity education Indexing information: Academic OneFile (GALE Cengage) Biological Abstracts (Clarivate Analytics) BIOSIS Previews (Clarivate Analytics) CAS: Chemical Abstracts Service (ACS) Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics) Environmental Science Collection (ProQuest) Environmental Science Database (ProQuest) Environment Complete (EBSCO Publishing) Natural Science Collection (ProQuest) OneFile: Environmental Studies and Policy (GALE Cengage) OneFile: Health and Medicine (
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Editor-in-chief Simon CreerPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 5%); most named United Kingdom 4, Canada 4, New Zealand 3, United States 2, Japan 2 (20 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity StudiesEnvironmental Science34.6%
- Identification and Quantification in FoodBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology18.8%
- Microbial Community Ecology and PhysiologyEnvironmental Science15.6%
- Protist diversity and phylogenyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.7%
- Species Distribution and Climate ChangeEnvironmental Science5.2%
- Fish Ecology and Management StudiesEnvironmental Science4.3%
- Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.9%
- Isotope Analysis in EcologyEnvironmental Science1.6%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Environmental Science & Ecology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Environmental Science & Ecology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Ecology | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceCASPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 5.8Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 9.2LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 9.2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 9.2Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.72LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.49LetPub ·
- h-index
- 69OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 439OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.42OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 20.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 171LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 173Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 570,275Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,022 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 143 | 143 | 78 |
| 2025 | 186 | 186 | 735 |
| 2024 | 145 | 145 | 1,283 |
| 2023 | 140 | 140 | 2,465 |
| 2022 | 117 | 117 | 2,859 |
| 2021 | 101 | 101 | 3,562 |
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.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
188 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 132 days – 243 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 20 days (104 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 217 days
- Sample
- 104 articles with submission and acceptance dates (338 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 16 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 56%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 56%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 58 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 58 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 177 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 21 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 16 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 3,170 / GBP 2,190 / EUR 2,730 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,880 / EUR 2,480 / GBP 2,190 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,750 / GBP 2,090 / EUR 2,370 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 300 words
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
Article types accepted2
- original articlesOriginal Articles: these papers report novel research projects that yield valuable insights into topics within our subject coverage.Length not stated
- reviewReview: reviews published in areas of particulLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteData availability, Publication ethics
- Data availability
FAIR data principles endorsed. Model summary
Environmental DNA endorses the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics 7. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Adheres to proposed global moratorium on use of human sequences in eDNA datasets. Model summary
Peer Review and AcceptanceThe acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. manuscripts are double-blind peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editors-in-Chief determine that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements. Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review proce…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
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.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2637-4943
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 8, Issue 5 (October 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Environmental DNA
What CAS zone is Environmental DNA in?
In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Environmental Science & Ecology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Environmental DNA?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 5.8 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 9.2, h-index 69.
How long does peer review take at Environmental DNA?
Based on the dates recorded on 104 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 188 days (interquartile range 132–243 days); authors report an average review time of about 16 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 56% (2025). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Environmental DNA?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 300 words; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Environmental DNA based?
Of the 20 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (4), Canada (4) and New Zealand (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Environmental DNA?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Environmental DNA is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science and CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Environmental DNA open access, and what is the APC?
Environmental DNA is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,170.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .