Journal profile · ECOLOGY
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
ISSN 2041-210X · John Wiley and Sons Inc. · ENGLAND · Founded 2010
Methods in Ecology and Evolution: CAS Zone 2 · Environmental Science & Ecology (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 5.67; fully open access; APC about USD 3,500; median 154 days to acceptance (86 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 25% (journal website); 287 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Methods in Ecology and Evolution is published by John Wiley and Sons Inc. and is in Zone 2 of Environmental Science & Ecology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Species Distribution and Climate Change, Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies and Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, together about 42.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Ecology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
EnglishEspañol普通话PortuguêsFrançais Methods in Ecology and Evolution (MEE) promotes the development, dissemination and uptake of new methods in any area of ecology and evolution, bringing together papers across a wide range of sub-disciplines to provide a single forum for publishing methodological developments. The emphasis of any paper published in MEE is on the description and analysis of new methods and methodological approaches, not the results of applying existing or new methods. These papers can be full-length research articles, shorter formal descriptions of hardware and tools or software applications, reviews, or perspectives on the state and development of methods used by ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Methods are defined in the widest terms, and may be analytical, practical, or conceptual. A primary aim of the journal is to maximise the uptake of techniques by the community. We recognise that a major stumbling block in the uptake and application of new methods is the accessibility of methods. From 6 July 2022, all papers submitted to MEE will be published fully Open Access. More information on our OA policy and fee waivers is available here. Is your manuscript in scope for MEE? What type of manuscript should you prepare? Abstracting and Indexing Information: Open Access Journal Index – OAJ (NSLC & CEPIEC) Methods in Ecology and Evolution (MEE) tiene como objetivo promover el desarrollo, la diseminación y la adopción de nuevas metodologías en el ámbito de la ecología y la evolución. La revista reúne artículos de todas las disciplinas y áreas de interés con el fin de ofrecer un foro único donde se publiquen los nuevos desarrollos metodológicos. Los artículos publicados en MEE están enfocados en la descripción y el análisis de nuevas aproximaciones metodológicas, más que en los resultados de la aplicación de dichas metodologías. Los artículos abarcan tanto trabajos de investigación extensos o trabajos más breves centrados en la descripción de hardware o aplicaciones de software, como trabajos de revisión o perspectivas sobre el estado y desarrollo de métodos utilizados habitualmente por ecólogos y biólogos evolutivos. Los métodos descritos en estos trabajos pueden tener un enfoque analítico, práctico o puramente conceptual. Una de las metas principales de la revista es la de potenciar al máximo la adopción de nuevos métodos entre la comunidad científica. Reconocemos que el difícil acceso a la información representa un gran escollo para la ad
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): ECOLOGY
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 17%); most named United Kingdom 3, Mainland China 1, United States 1, Canada 1 (6 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Species Distribution and Climate ChangeEnvironmental Science17.1%
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics StudiesEnvironmental Science12.6%
- Wildlife Ecology and ConservationEnvironmental Science12.5%
- Plant and animal studiesAgricultural and Biological Sciences6.3%
- Marine animal studies overviewEnvironmental Science4.3%
- Genetic diversity and population structureBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.8%
- Animal Vocal Communication and BehaviorBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.7%
- Animal Behavior and ReproductionAgricultural and Biological Sciences3.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Environmental Science & Ecology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Environmental Science & Ecology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Ecology | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
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: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Environmental Science & Ecology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Environmental Science & Ecology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Ecology | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- 5.67LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 5.7Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 12.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 12.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 12.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.61LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.39LetPub ·
- h-index
- 77LetPub ·
- h-index
- 234OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 2,160OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.36OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 240LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 251Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 2,953,163Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,365 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 196 | 196 | 97 |
| 2025 | 287 | 287 | 1,007 |
| 2024 | 217 | 217 | 1,951 |
| 2023 | 244 | 244 | 4,874 |
| 2022 | 254 | 212 | 8,535 |
| 2021 | 266 | 195 | 12,973 |
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
154 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 130 days – 200 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 36 days (86 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 200 days
- Sample
- 86 articles with submission and acceptance dates (529 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)
- 4–8 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 25%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 25%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 15 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 15 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 148 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 38 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 28 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 | EUR 2,950 / GBP 2,650 / USD 3,500 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,500 / EUR 2,950 / GBP 2,650 | — | — | |
| 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 prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 350 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Cover letter
- Optional
- Not considered
- workflows that link together existing methods; methods that apply only to a single taxon or ecosystem
Article types accepted8, with length limits
- commentaryResearch articles describe new methods in ecology and evolution and how they may be used. Descriptions of new computational methods normally should include test…Length not stated
- editorialTransparent Peer Review: This journal is participating in a pilot on Peer Review Transparency. By submitting to this journal, authors agree that the reviewer re…Length not stated
- opinionResearch articles describe new methods in ecology and evolution and how they may be used. Descriptions of new computational methods normally should include test…Length not stated
- perspectiveResearch articles describe new methods in ecology and evolution and how they may be used. Descriptions of new computational methods normally should include test…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- research articleResearch articles describe new methods in ecology and evolution and how they may be used. Descriptions of new computational methods normally should include test…main text ≤ 8,000 words
- reviewResearch articles describe new methods in ecology and evolution and how they may be used. Descriptions of new computational methods normally should include test…main text ≤ 12,500 words
- short communicationorkflow Checklist Forum submissions are short communications (normally up to 1000 words, including tables/figure captions, statements and referencemain text ≤ 1,000 words
- standard articleences, no more than 7000-8000 words for Standard Articles, 3000-4000 words for Applications and Practical Tools) Continuous line and pmain text ≤ 4,000 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism
- Authorship
Translated abstracts encouraged; published online but not in PDF; not copyedited. Model summary
We encourage authors to include abstracts translated into their native language or the language relevant to the country in which the research was conducted. These translated abstracts will be published with the online version of the article but will not be included in the PDF. Please note that translated abstracts will not be copyedited but will be published as provided by the authors.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Availability
To enable readers to locate archived data from papers, we require that authors list the database and the respective accession numbers or DOIs for all data from the manuscript that has been made publicly available. For example, “Data available from the Dryad Digital Repository http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.41qh7 (Kiere & Drummond 2016).” When a DOI is available for the data, the full data citatio…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Open Access copyright license
Methods in Ecology and Evolution is a `gold’ open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Methods in Ecology and Evolution offers corresponding authors the following license agreement: Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY, CC BY- NC, CC BY-NC-ND. To preview the terms and conditions of this Open Access agreement, please visit Cr…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access copyright license
Gold open access; CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND license options. Model summary
Methods in Ecology and Evolution is a `gold’ open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Methods in Ecology and Evolution offers corresponding authors the following license agreement: Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY, CC BY- NC, CC BY-NC-ND. To preview the terms and conditions of this Open Access agreement, please visit Cr…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review
Participates in NISO Working Group on Peer Review Terminology. Model summary
This journal operates under a double-anonymous and transparent peer review model. Double-Anonymous: both authors and reviewers identities are anonymous during the peer review process. Reviewers may still choose to sign their review. For more information on submitting a double anonymous manuscript, including preprints and code/ packages already on the CRAN library see our FAQs. Transparant: Authors…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism
CrossCheck screening for overlaps with previously published works. Model summary
The BES is a member of CrossCheck, and reserves the right to screen all submitted articles against the CrossCheck database, used to identify overlaps between submissions and previously published works.
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
- John Wiley and Sons Inc.
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Founded
- 2010
- ISSN
- 2041-210X
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Methods in Ecology and Evolution
What CAS zone is Methods in Ecology and Evolution in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Methods in Ecology and Evolution is in Zone 2 of Environmental Science & Ecology, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Ecology; it is a Top journal. 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 Methods in Ecology and Evolution?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 5.67; CiteScore 12.7, h-index 234.
How long does peer review take at Methods in Ecology and Evolution?
Based on the dates recorded on 86 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 154 days (interquartile range 130–200 days); authors report an average review time of 4–8 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 25% (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 Methods in Ecology and Evolution?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 350 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: Author–date; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Cover letter: Optional. 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 Methods in Ecology and Evolution based?
Of the 6 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 17%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (3), Mainland China (1) and United States (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Methods in Ecology and Evolution?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Methods in Ecology and Evolution is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Methods in Ecology and Evolution open access, and what is the APC?
Methods in Ecology and Evolution is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,500.
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: .