Journal profile · BIOLOGY
Journal of Ethnobiology
ISSN 0278-0771 · eISSN 2162-4496 · Society of Ethnobiology · UNITED STATES
Journal of Ethnobiology: CAS Zone 3 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.45; fully open access; APC about USD 3,400; review about 236 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); community-reported acceptance: easy; 25 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Ethnobiology is published by Society of Ethnobiology and is in Zone 3 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and Archaeology and ancient environmental studies, together about 25.1% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The Journal of Ethnobiology (JoE) is a quarterly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Society of Ethnobiology. Founded in 1981, JoE is the oldest ethnobiological journal in the world to publish original interdisciplinary research on past and present inter-relations between humans and their biological worlds.Sustained by a large global community of scholars in ethnobiology, JoE is committed to push the boundaries of knowledge through the publication of robust ethnobiological research with great societal impact and high policy relevance. As one of the world-leading scientific journals in ethnobiology, JoE has a particular interest in research that has the potential to increase the voice of ethnobiologists in global conversations about environmental change, planetary sustainability and Indigenous Peoples’ rights, among others.Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ethnobiology.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): BIOLOGY
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 11, France 3, Spain 1, Canada 1, Netherlands 1 (21 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants StudiesAgricultural and Biological Sciences8.9%
- Wildlife Ecology and ConservationEnvironmental Science8.7%
- Archaeology and ancient environmental studiesEarth and Planetary Sciences7.5%
- Indigenous Studies and EcologyHealth Professions7.1%
- Animal and Plant Science EducationPsychology6.9%
- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource ManagementEnvironmental Science5.8%
- Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and BeyondEnvironmental Science5.3%
- Pacific and Southeast Asian StudiesSocial Sciences5.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Anthropology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Anthropology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Anthropology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Biology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIESSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
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
- 1.45LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.29LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.79LetPub ·
- h-index
- 17LetPub ·
- h-index
- 50OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 317OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.26OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 17.02%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 29LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 652 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 21 | 9 | 0 |
| 2025 | 25 | 11 | 45 |
| 2024 | 36 | 19 | 140 |
| 2023 | 40 | 23 | 190 |
| 2022 | 27 | 4 | 169 |
| 2021 | 31 | 14 | 898 |
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
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
236 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports over 12 weeks
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- over 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 12.7%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 12 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 236 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 106 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
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 accessLetPub
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,400 / GBP 2,493 | — | — | |
| 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 prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- ≥ 4
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,500 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted9, with length limits
- commentaryResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …Length not stated
- letterResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …main text ≤ 10,000 words
- perspectiveResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …Length not stated
- research articleResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …main text ≤ 8,500 words
- research articlesResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited.Length not stated
- reviewResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …Length not stated
- review articleResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …Length not stated
- review articlesReview Articles: We are especially interested in review articles that can connect two or more topics within ethnobiology and/or related fields that have the pot…Length not stated
- systematic reviewResearch Articles: Manuscripts should be 20 - 40 ms pages, and approximately 5,000 - 8,500 words, including abstract, tables and references cited. We encourage …Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
No submission or publication fees; optional OA via Sage Choice Model summary
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Single anonymized review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Single-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprints not accepted Model summary
The journal does not accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
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
- Society of Ethnobiology
- Country or region
- UNITED STATES
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0278-0771
- Electronic ISSN
- 2162-4496
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Ethnobiology
What CAS zone is Journal of Ethnobiology in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Ethnobiology is in Zone 3 of Sociology, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Anthropology / Biology. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Ethnobiology?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.45; CiteScore 2.6, h-index 50.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Ethnobiology?
The publisher reports about 236 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of over 12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Easy”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 12.7%. 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 Journal of Ethnobiology?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Keywords: ≥ 4; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,500 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Cover letter: 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 Journal of Ethnobiology based?
Of the 21 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (11), France (3) and Spain (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Journal of Ethnobiology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Ethnobiology is indexed in SCIE, SSCI and Scopus.
Is Journal of Ethnobiology open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Ethnobiology is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,400.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .