Journal profile · Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Natural Product Reports
ISSN 0265-0568 · eISSN 1460-4752 · Royal Society of Chemistry · ENGLAND · Monthly · Founded 1984
Natural Product Reports: CAS Zone 1 · Biology (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 12.44; hybrid open access; APC charged, amount not published; review 6–12 weeks (community reports); community-reported acceptance: hard; 133 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Natural Product Reports is published by Royal Society of Chemistry and is in Zone 1 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis, Marine Sponges and Natural Products and Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis, together about 39.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Molecular Biology and Organic Chemistry. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The scope of the journal is very broad, and many reviews discuss the role of natural products in the wider bioinorganic, bioorganic and chemical biology communities. Areas covered include the following: EnzymologyNucleic acidsGeneticsChemical ecologyCarbohydratesPrimary and secondary metabolismAnalytical techniques NPR articles are designed to give an interesting insight into the topic, focusing on the key developments that have shaped a field. Authors are encouraged to include their own perspective on developments, trends and future directions. Articles providing a very comprehensive overview or exhaustive list of previous literature and lacking critical insight are generally not suitable for publication in NPR. A review can contain meta-analyses of previously published data using existing tools, however NPR articles should not include any new methods or data.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 25%); most named Mainland China 1, India 1, Spain 1, Australia 1 (4 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Microbial Natural Products and BiosynthesisMedicine20.8%
- Marine Sponges and Natural ProductsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology9.8%
- Plant biochemistry and biosynthesisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology9.3%
- Chemical synthesis and alkaloidsChemistry6.7%
- Natural product bioactivities and synthesisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology6.5%
- Diverse Scientific and Economic StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance5%
- Carbohydrate Chemistry and SynthesisChemistry3.6%
- Phytochemical compounds biological activitiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Biology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Organic | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: yes
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Biology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Organic | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Chemistry Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Chemistry | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Medicinal | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Organic | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: yes
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceMEDLINEPubMedPublisher website
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
- 12.44LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 12.5Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 21.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.19LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 3.23LetPub ·
- h-index
- 157LetPub ·
- h-index
- 250OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,907OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 8.78OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 41.71%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 86LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,583 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 120 | 71 | 149 |
| 2025 | 133 | 87 | 1,033 |
| 2024 | 111 | 76 | 2,014 |
| 2023 | 109 | 61 | 2,591 |
| 2022 | 122 | 42 | 4,003 |
| 2021 | 130 | 46 | 6,213 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- 6–12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- HardLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 40 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer review, Open 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
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher website | GBP 3,100 | — | — |
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.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 50–250 words
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
Article types accepted5, with length limits
- highlight articlesHighlight articles Highlights are concise, non-comprehensive reviews which give a 'snapshot' of a hot or specialist research area; 4–8 pages in length, generall…Length not stated
- review articleCritical reviews of key areas of research, focusing on key developments rather than comprehensive accounts of everything that has occurred in the field; general…Length not stated
- review articlesReview articles Critical reviews of key areas of research, focusing on key developments rather than comprehensive accounts of everything that has occurred in th…Length not stated
- viewpointShort articles that focus on some of the key challenges in natural products research. They can be “opinion” style articles, which give the author’s perspectives…figures and tables ≤ 3 · references ≤ 20
- viewpoint articlesViewpoint articles Short articles that focus on some of the key challenges in natural products research. They can be “opinion” style articles, which give the au…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
Include full names and affiliations for all authors. Everyone who made a significant contribution to the conception, design or implementation of the work should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author has the responsibility to include all (and only) co-authors. The corresponding author also signs a copyright licence on behalf of all the authors. If there are more than 10 co-authors on th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflicts of interest
In accordance with our policy on Conflicts of interest please ensure that a conflicts of interest statement is included in your manuscript. This statement is required for all submitted manuscripts. If no conflicts exist, please state that ‘There are no conflicts to declare’.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
Data availability statement required for all articles Model summary
A data availability statement (DAS) is required to be submitted alongside all articles. Please see the submit section of these guidelines for more details and examples of suitable statements you can use.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Using images and copyright
Any images that are used should be numerically referenced in the figure caption. If your work is solely for your course, and will not be published publicly, you don’t need to obtain copyright permission. If you are preparing an article to be published you will have to obtain copyright permission. The publisher/copyright owner of the image will need to be contacted and asked for their process for r…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access publishing options
Gold open access For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, our article processing charge (APC) of £3,100 (+ any applicable tax) is applied. Our APC is all-inclusive and makes your article freely available online immediately, permanently, and includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost. It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Transparent peer review
Transparent peer review available Model summary
In the interest of transparency and open science, transparent peer review is where the editor’s decision letter, reviewers’ comments and authors’ response for all versions of the manuscript are published alongside the article under an Open Access Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) . You can see some examples here: Transparent peer review example oneTransparent peer review example twoTransparent peer…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint servers (for example, ChemRxiv, arXiv)
Digital preservation policy: online content (electronic journals and eBooks) preserved in CLOCKSS, LOCKSS, and Portico. Model summary
ChemRxiv & bioRxiv: The citation should include the author(s), the name of the preprint server, the year, the word “preprint” and the DOI (including version number). S. Bhattacharjee, S. P. Chaudhary and S. Bhattacharyya, ChemRxiv, 2019, preprint, DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.9794270.v1 arXiv: The citation should include the author(s), the name of the preprint server, the year, the article number and th…
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
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1984
- ISSN
- 0265-0568
- Electronic ISSN
- 1460-4752
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Natural Product Reports
What CAS zone is Natural Product Reports in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Natural Product Reports is in Zone 1 of Biology, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Biochemistry & Molecular Biology / Chemistry, Medicinal / Chemistry, Organic; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Biology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Natural Product Reports?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 12.44; CiteScore 21.2, h-index 250.
How long does peer review take at Natural Product Reports?
Authors report an average review time of 6–12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Hard”. 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 Natural Product Reports?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 50–250 words; Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; Templates: LaTeX and Word. 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 Natural Product Reports based?
Of the 4 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 25%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (1), India (1) and Spain (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Natural Product Reports?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Natural Product Reports is indexed in SCIE and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, MEDLINE and PubMed; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Natural Product Reports open access, and what is the APC?
Natural Product Reports is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website; 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: .