Open Access Paleontology Rankings - Part III

This post continues the series on the 2009 Open Access Paleontology Journal Rankings. Previously, I posted the rankings for Immediate Open Access Journals for General Submission and All Immediate Open Access Journals (including those museum publications with more restrictive submission requirements). Here, I'll release the final set of rankings, including both immediate open access and delayed open access journals. A number of notable journals (such as Science) now allow open access after a period of one year, so it only seemed fair to address them too.

As always, the ratings are based on a combination of journal citations, recent citations, number of articles, and community opinion (outlined previously). At the end of this series, I will post the raw data underlying the ratings.

Don't Forget The Caveats
Remember, these rankings are only one method for measuring the efficacy, quality, and impact of a journal, and you will probably disagree with one or more of the placements on the list. Especially for relatively young journals, rankings may change rapidly in the coming years.

Top Open Access Journals for Paleontology 2009
(General Results, Immediate and Delayed OA)

1. Science*
2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
3. Proceedings of the Royal Society B
4. PLoS Biology
5. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History [tie]
   
6. [tie]
   
7. American Museum Novitates
   
8. Biology Letters
9. Ameghiniana
10. Paläontologische Zeitschrift
11. PLoS ONE
12. Palaeontologia Electronica
13. Geologica Acta
14. Vertebrata PalAsiatica
15. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Geodiversitas [tie]
16. [tie]
    
17. Geogaceta
18. Estudios Geológicos
19. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology
20. Revue de Paléobiologie
21. Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum
22. Contributions in Science from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology [tie]
    
23. [tie]
    
24. Journal of Paleontological Sciences*
    
25. Coloquios de Paleontología
26. PalArch
27. Joannea - Geologie und Paläontologie
28. Natura Nascosta
29. The Open Paleontology Journal
30. Palaeodiversity
31. Journal of Paleontological Techniques
    

*not included in the community ranking survey

Note
It should be noted that some very fine journals (e.g., PaleoBios) have open access archives for older issues (five years or older), but these publications were not included on the general list. I made the somewhat arbitrary decision to exclude journals with lag times of greater than one year.

Up Next. . .Community Rankings of Journals