Journal profile · BIOLOGY
EXCLI Journal
ISSN 1611-2156 · University of Mainz · GERMANY · Irregular · Founded 2002
EXCLI Journal: CAS Zone 3 · Biology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 5.95; diamond open access (no APC); no APC; median 39 days to acceptance (97 articles, last 24 months); community-reported acceptance: fairly easy; 114 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
EXCLI Journal is published by University of Mainz and is in Zone 3 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment, Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activities and Natural Antidiabetic Agents Studies, together about 18.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
EXCLI Journal publishes original research reports, authoritative reviews and case reports of experimental and clinical sciences. The journal is particularly keen to keep a broad view of science and technology, and therefore welcomes papers which bridge disciplines and may not suit the narrow specialism of other journals. Although the general emphasis is on biological sciences, studies from the following fields are explicitly encouraged (alphabetical order): aging research, cell biology, clinical and preclinical research, drug development, environmental health, ergonomics, gastroenterology and hepatology, genetics, epigenetics and genomics, immunology, neuroscience and behavioral sciences, oncology and cancer research, pharmacology and toxicology, physiology, biochemistry and metabolomics, psychology, regenerative medicine and stem cell research, systems biology Only original scientific submissions are considered. All articles are reviewed by independent experts (peer review) or editors (editorial review) to ensure the quality of the submitted work. EXCLI Journal is a platinum open access journal listed in DOAJ, Web of Science, EBSCO, Pubmed, and PubmedCentral. All articles will be deposited at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (Frankfurt/Main) as well as in PubmedCentral and in Pubmed. Open access to full text articles of this journal is managed by IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, with no commercial interest. EXCLI Journal provides free access (Open Access) to its contents according to the basic assumption that the free public availability of research benefits a worldwide knowledge exchange. The articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Publication is free of costs for scientists. There will be no article processing charges, neither for the authors nor for their institutions. Color pictures and other media are also published free of costs.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): BIOLOGY
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Germany 9, United States 4, India 2, Egypt 2, United Kingdom 1 (23 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Liver Disease Diagnosis and TreatmentMedicine6.9%
- Phytochemicals and Antioxidant ActivitiesMedicine6%
- Natural Antidiabetic Agents StudiesMedicine5.7%
- Natural product bioactivities and synthesisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.5%
- Computational Drug Discovery MethodsComputer Science5.1%
- Synthesis and biological activityChemistry5.1%
- Cancer-related molecular mechanisms researchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.7%
- MicroRNA in disease regulationBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.5%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Biology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Biology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Biology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePMCPubMedPublisher website
Other: EZB, EBSCO Academic Search, SCImago, LIVIVO, BASE
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
- 5.95LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2024
- 4.9Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2023
- 3.8Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2022
- 4.6Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2021
- 4.02Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2020
- 4.07Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2019
- 2.84Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2018
- 2.11Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2017
- 2.42Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2016
- 1.46Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2015
- 1.29Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2014
- 0.86Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2013
- 0.73Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 8.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.16LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.32LetPub ·
- h-index
- 24LetPub ·
- h-index
- 67OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 693OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.36OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 1.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 66LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,499 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2026 | 66 | 66 | 4 |
| 2025 | 114 | 114 | 124 |
| 2024 | 86 | 86 | 236 |
| 2023 | 109 | 109 | 855 |
| 2022 | 84 | 84 | 1,069 |
| 2021 | 132 | 132 | 1,719 |
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 PubMed · to
39 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 26 days – 57 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 30 days (96 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 74 days
- Sample
- 97 articles with submission and acceptance dates (214 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)
- 6–12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- Fairly easyLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 9 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Unspecified 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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
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)
Article types accepted6
- case reportsClinical case studies present the details of real patient cases from medical or clinical practice.Length not stated
- editorial materialEditorial materialLength not stated
- letters to the editorEXCLI Journal welcomes Letters to the editor addressing topics relevant to science and the scientific community. Letters are short communications that allow aut…Length not stated
- original articlesOriginal articles are studies reporting original research and are classified as primary literature.Length not stated
- review articlesReview articles summarize and evaluate the existing literature in a specific field, identify relevant problems or issues, and analyze published data.Length not stated
- scientific forumThe Scientific Forum is a dedicated article format of EXCLI Journal intended to promote structured, evidence-based discussion of issues that affect scientific r…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- AI use The problem of weak AI-generated graphical abstracts
Agapios Sachinidis, Wiebke Albrecht, Jan G. Hengstler 848-850 Article - PDF Article - HTML Article - XML
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
Copyright retained by authors; journal gets right of first publication under CC BY 4.0. Model summary
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms: The authors keep the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, CC BY 4.0. This licencse permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited. The use of general descriptive names, trad…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access
Platinum open access journal. Model summary
EXCLI Journal (eISSN 1611-2156) is a platinum open access journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Scientific Forum contributions are not externally peer reviewed; evaluated by editorial team. Model summary
Contributions submitted to the Scientific Forum are not subject to external peer review. Instead, submissions are evaluated by a member of the editorial team.
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
- University of Mainz
- Country or region
- GERMANY
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Irregular
- Founded
- 2002
- ISSN
- 1611-2156
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 25 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about EXCLI Journal
What CAS zone is EXCLI Journal in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, EXCLI Journal is in Zone 3 of Biology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Biology. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Biology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of EXCLI Journal?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 5.95; CiteScore 8.6, h-index 67.
How long does peer review take at EXCLI Journal?
Based on the dates recorded on 97 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 39 days (interquartile range 26–57 days); authors report an average review time of 6–12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Fairly easy”. 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.
Where are the editorial board members of EXCLI Journal based?
Of the 23 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Germany (9), United States (4) and India (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index EXCLI Journal?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, EXCLI Journal is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, PMC and PubMed; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is EXCLI Journal open access, and what is the APC?
EXCLI Journal is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, 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: .