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PLOS Biology is Scopus-indexed (Q1, CiteScore 9.2), WoS SCIE, DOAJ. Published by Public Library of Science.
Checked against the index lists dated .
ISSN 1544-9173Verify ISSN ↗1545-7885Verify ISSN ↗
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Cost to publish: Checking DOAJ for article charges…
| Subject area | Rank | Pctile | Q |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all) | 13 / 235 | 94th | Q1 |
| Immunology and Microbiology (all) | 7 / 63 | 89th | Q1 |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) | 32 / 223 | 85th | Q1 |
| Neuroscience (all) | 19 / 112 | 83rd | Q1 |
Not listed in: ABDC, ABS / AJG, FT50, UT Dallas, ONOS (subscription), ONOS (APC covered)
Yes — actively indexed in Scopus, coverage 2003–present, best quartile Q1, CiteScore 9.2.
PLOS Biology is Q1 in Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all) (rank 13 of 235), Q1 in Immunology and Microbiology (all) (rank 7 of 63) and Q1 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) (rank 32 of 223), by CiteScore 2025. It is ranked in 4 subject areas in all.
PLOS Biology is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded, so it may have a Journal Impact Factor in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports. JCR is paid, so check it for the current value. The closest free measure is its Scopus CiteScore 9.2, which places it in quartile Q1 at the 94th percentile of its subject. Its SCImago Journal Rank (SJR, a free Scopus-based metric) is 2.525, quartile Q1, with an H-index of 328.
The publisher lists an article processing charge of about US$5,500 for open access (source: OpenAlex). Many journals also publish by the subscription route at no cost to the author, so confirm on the journal's own website.
PLOS Biology is published by Public Library of Science. Its print ISSN is 1544-9173 and its online ISSN is 1545-7885.
Yes — indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded.
Yes — it is an open-access journal, listed in DOAJ.
PLOS Biology has an h-index of 394 and a 2-year mean of 7.09 citations per paper (OpenAlex). Its Scopus CiteScore is 9.2, quartile Q1. On 2-year citations it ranks #8 of 224 Scopus journals in Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all).
PLOS Biology published 576 papers in 2025. 2026* is the year so far.
h-index, i10-index and 2-year mean citedness are open, licence-clear metrics from OpenAlex — not a proprietary impact factor. The subject rank counts only journals that OpenAlex has a figure for; it is not a Scopus or Clarivate ranking. Updated 2026-10-14.
In its latest 100 research articles (2026), authors are most often from United States (33.7%), China (13%) and United Kingdom (10.8%).
Countries are counted fractionally, so a paper by authors from two countries counts half to each.
Scopus status: Active. 28 retracted papers are recorded (3.2 per 1,000 papers). The Problematic Paper Screener flags none of its papers. These are indicators to check, not findings against the journal.
Retractions from OpenAlex; flags from the Problematic Paper Screener (Cabanac, Labbé & Magazinov, CC BY), 2026-09-21 export. A flag marks a paper for a closer look; it is not a finding against the journal.
Index data is curated from public sources (Scopus, Web of Science, ABDC, FT50, UT Dallas, DOAJ). CiteScore and quartiles reflect the latest available Scopus release. Always verify a journal's current status on its official source before submitting.
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