Journal profile · Earth and Planetary Sciences-Earth-Surface Processes
Soil Systems
ISSN 2571-8789 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · Switzerland
Soil Systems: CAS Zone 3 · Agricultural & Forestry Sciences (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.1 (journal website); JCR Q2 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 11 weeks (community reports); 144 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Soil Systems is published by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) and is in Zone 3 of Agricultural & Forestry Sciences in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics, Heavy metals in environment and Soil erosion and sediment transport, together about 39.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Soil Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Soil Systems (ISSN 2571-8789) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to publishing reviews, regular research papers, communications and short notes focusing on biological, (bio)chemical, and physical processes operating within soils and sediments. We are particularly interested in studies or review articles that examine (or describe) coupled processes operating within these complex media that control element cycling, interactions occurring at the interface between soil minerals, organic matter, and microorganisms. Processes contributing to the development or loss of soils are also of interest.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Earth and Planetary Sciences-Earth-Surface Processes
Editor-in-chief Heike KnickerPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 3 in mainland China (about 10%); most named United States 6, Italy 6, Australia 4, Mainland China 3, United Kingdom 2 (31 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsAgricultural and Biological Sciences22.9%
- Heavy metals in environmentEnvironmental Science9.6%
- Soil erosion and sediment transportAgricultural and Biological Sciences6.8%
- Soil and Unsaturated FlowEngineering6.6%
- Soil Geostatistics and MappingEnvironmental Science6.6%
- Soil and Water Nutrient DynamicsEnvironmental Science5.8%
- Peatlands and Wetlands EcologyEnvironmental Science4%
- Clay minerals and soil interactionsMaterials Science3.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Agricultural & Forestry Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Agricultural & Forestry Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Soil Science | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Agricultural & Forestry Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Agricultural & Forestry Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Soil Science | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q2 · Soil Science
- CiteScore Q1 · Earth-Surface Processes
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of ScienceCASGeoRefPublisher 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 (publisher)
- 4.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.9LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 6.9Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.95LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.12LetPub ·
- h-index
- 49OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 364OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.54OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.74%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 138LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 888 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 101 | 101 | 53 |
| 2025 | 144 | 144 | 537 |
| 2024 | 133 | 133 | 1,125 |
| 2023 | 117 | 117 | 1,975 |
| 2022 | 98 | 98 | 1,944 |
| 2021 | 70 | 70 | 1,547 |
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)
- about 11 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 32.7 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 4.8 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication
- 75 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 6 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single 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 | CHF 1,800 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 1,800 | — | — | |
| LetPub | CHF 1,800 | 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)
Open calls for papers7, by deadline
- Adsorption Processes in Soils and SedimentsDeadline
- Microbial Community Structure and Function in SoilsDeadline
- Soil Fertility Evaluation and Precision FertilizationDeadline
- Peatlands: Properties, Values and Recent AdvancesDeadline
- Soil Management and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global ChallengesDeadline
- Biogeochemical Processes of Nutrients in Soil and Sediments: C, N, and P CyclingDeadline
- Soil Microbial Ecology and Ecosystem Sustainability in a Changing EnvironmentDeadline
What to prepare7 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Required, 3
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted4
- articleArticle: These are original research manuscripts. The work should report scientifically sound experiments and provide a substantial amount of new information.Length not stated
- editorialAll peer-reviewed articles published by MDPI are assessed by our independent Academic Editors, and MDPI staff are not involved in any editorial decisions regard…Length not stated
- reviewReview: Reviews offer a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature within a field of study, identifying current gaps or problems.Length not stated
- scoping reviewA Scoping Review type can be submitted as a Review.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
MDPI follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed: Make substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; Draft the work or review it critically for important intel…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflicts of Interest
According to The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, “Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.” All authors mus…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability statements
Data availability statements are required for all articles published with MDPI. During the peer review and editorial decision process, authors can be asked to share existing datasets or raw data that have been analyzed in the manuscript, and whether they will be made available to other researchers following publication. Authors will also be asked for the details of any existing datasets that have …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Publication Ethics Statement
Soil Systems is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We fully adhere to its Code of Conduct and to its Best Practice Guidelines. The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsif…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright / Open Access
Articles published in Soil Systems will be Open-Access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright is retained by the author(s). MDPI will insert the following note at the end of the published text: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms a…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access publication fees
If you transfer your manuscript to another open access (OA) journal, you will be charged an Article Processing Charge (APC) if your article is accepted for publication. The APC for each journal can be found on the individual journal’s website. For more information about APCs, please see here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Editorial Process and Peer Review
All submissions are thoroughly peer-reviewed by experts within the field and undergo a structured editorial workflow designed to ensure quality, transparency, and scientific integrity. The full editorial procedure is available on the Editorial Process page and is also provided below. Pre-check Pre-check consists of a technical pre-check performed by the Editorial Office and an editorial pre-check …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints and Conference Papers
Soil Systems accepts submissions that have previously been made available as preprints provided that they have not undergone peer review. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal. MDPI operates Preprints, a preprint server to which submitted papers can be uploaded directly after completing journal submission. Note that Preprints operates indepen…
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
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
- Country or region
- Switzerland
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2571-8789
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 10 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- 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 Soil Systems
What CAS zone is Soil Systems in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Soil Systems is in Zone 3 of Agricultural & Forestry Sciences, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Soil Science. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Agricultural & Forestry Sciences. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Soil Systems?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 4.1; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 6.9, h-index 49.
How long does peer review take at Soil Systems?
Authors report an average review time of about 11 weeks. 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 JCR quartile is Soil Systems in?
The journal's website gives JCR Q2; by category, Soil Science Q2. JCR quartiles are Clarivate's to confirm and a different system from the CAS zones; in the CAS ranking the journal is in Zone 3 of Agricultural & Forestry Sciences.
What are the manuscript requirements of Soil Systems?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Reference style: Author–date; Templates: LaTeX and Word; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Required, 3; Graphical abstract: Optional; 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 Soil Systems based?
Of the 31 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 3 (about 10%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (6), Italy (6) and Australia (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Soil Systems?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Soil Systems is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, CAS and GeoRef; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Soil Systems open access, and what is the APC?
Soil Systems is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
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: .