Fastest-accepting ecology journals 2026

53 ecology journals ranked by the median number of days from submission to acceptance, measured from the dates publishers deposit in PubMed for articles published 2024–2025. The interval includes peer review and revisions.

Journals: 53
Typical median: 144 d
Under 60 days: 1
Over 180 days: 14

Read this before using the ranking

Accepted papers only. Rejected manuscripts never receive an acceptance date, so these figures say nothing about desk-rejection speed, rejection rates or your chance of acceptance.
Not the time to a first decision. The interval runs from the “received” date to the “accepted” date the publisher deposits in PubMed. It includes editorial handling, peer review, every round of revision and the time authors spent revising.
Journals record dates differently. Some reset the received date when a revised manuscript arrives, and manuscripts transferred from another journal may keep or lose their earlier dates. Short medians are therefore not always comparable with long ones.
Past timelines are not a promise. Each figure comes from up to 100 recent articles published 2024–2025. Article types, special issues, editors and workload all change, and your paper may take much longer or much less time.
Fast is not the same as good. Check the journal’s scope, indexing, peer-review policy and editorial board before submitting. An unusually quick acceptance can be a warning sign of light peer review.

Journal Metrics is independent and is not affiliated with any journal or publisher listed. The figures are for information only, may contain errors and change as PubMed records are updated. Confirm current timelines on the journal’s own website. See how to spot predatory journals.

Ecology journals by median days from submission to acceptance

Ecology journals ranked by median days from submission to acceptance in PubMed
Rank	Journal	Median days	Middle half	Articles	Quartile	2026 score
1	JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY	56	39–81	95	Q1	4.1
2	Biodiversity Data Journal	66	42–96	100	Q3	1.3
3	Data in Brief	69	47–111	100	Q2	2.5
4	CURRENT OPINION IN MICROBIOLOGY	70	49–110	94	Q1	6.9
5	Frontiers in Microbiology	73	50–93	100	Q1	5.2
6	PhytoKeys	76	51–118	100	Q2	1.3
7	INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY	82	67–104	97	Q2	2.2
7	JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGICAL METHODS	82	60–117	100	Q2	1.7
9	JOURNAL OF BASIC MICROBIOLOGY	85	70–109	100	Q1	3.1
10	ZooKeys	90	62–138	100	Q3	1.2
11	JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY	93	67–133	100	Q2	2.0
12	ARTHROPOD STRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT	98	65–124	87	Q3	1.0
12	ANNALS OF BOTANY	98	76–128	96	Q1	3.0
14	Science of Nature	100	62–154	100	Q2	1.5
15	FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS	106	68–166	100	Q2	1.8
16	ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY	118	96–157	95	Q2	1.8
17	Royal Society Open Science	123	87–152	100	Q1	3.8
18	mLife	125	90–169	99	Q1	4.5
18	TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION	125	73–178	100	Q1	7.8
18	JOURNAL OF PLANT RESEARCH	125	80–190	98	Q1	2.3
21	Plant Diversity	129	93–164	100	Q1	4.3
22	Integrative Zoology	132	94–173	93	Q2	2.1
23	Journal of Comparative Physiology B-Biochemical Systems and Environmental Physiology	133	83–195	100	Q1	2.7
24	JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY	138	81–196	90	Q2	2.2
25	Ecology and Evolution	142	105–182	100	Q1	2.4
25	AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY	142	85–249	51	Q1	2.5
27	Evolution Letters	144	106–220	99	Q1	4.6
28	ISME Communications	146	97–208	100	Q1	4.4
29	Conservation Physiology	148	89–230	99	Q1	2.8
30	FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS	151	94–209	94	Q1	13.3
31	MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION	157	118–223	100	Q1	3.5
32	PeerJ	163	110–199	100	Q1	3.2
33	Integrative Organismal Biology	165	102–223	74	Q2	2.0
34	Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A-Ecological and Integrative Physiology	166	119–226	99	Q2	1.6
35	BMC Zoology	169	122–224	57	Q2	1.9
35	PRIMATES	169	110–259	97	Q2	1.3
37	ECOLOGY	171	99–228	100	Q1	3.4
38	EVOLUTION	176	103–289	100	Q1	2.6
39	JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY	179	125–309	100	Q1	2.6
40	Movement Ecology	183	121–238	100	Q1	3.3
41	MOLECULAR ECOLOGY	188	139–251	100	Q1	3.6
42	FOLIA PRIMATOLOGICA	199	133–264	52	Q3	0.8
43	OECOLOGIA	200	126–292	100	Q2	2.2
44	JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY	203	138–260	100	Q1	2.5
45	ZOOLOGY	204	146–322	68	Q2	1.4
46	AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY	207	142–276	100	Q2	1.6
46	CURRENT MICROBIOLOGY	207	144–279	100	Q2	2.5
48	BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY	217	163–288	97	Q1	2.4
49	JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY	275	214–372	65	Q1	2.1
50	Nature Microbiology	279	195–338	85	Q1	16.3
51	ZOO BIOLOGY	282	213–394	100	Q3	0.9
52	BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS	305	256–389	100	Q1	10.9
53	Nature Food	367	289–468	58	Q1	12.3

Median days: half of the journal’s accepted articles took less time from submission to acceptance and half took more. Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile. Articles: how many recent PubMed articles had both dates. Journals with the same rounded median share a rank.

Median under 30 days. Very short intervals usually reflect how a journal records its dates (for example a new received date after revision) or invited and fast-track article types such as reviews and editorials, not unusually quick peer review. Check the journal’s peer-review policy before reading anything into them.

Questions about ecology journal acceptance times

Which ecology journals accept papers fastest?

Among the 53 ecology journals with enough PubMed dates, the shortest median times from submission to acceptance (leaving out medians under 30 days, which usually reflect how dates are recorded) are JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY (56 days), Biodiversity Data Journal (66 days), Data in Brief (69 days), CURRENT OPINION IN MICROBIOLOGY (70 days), Frontiers in Microbiology (73 days). These medians include peer review and revisions, and cover accepted papers only.

How long does a ecology journal take to accept a paper?

The typical ecology journal on this page has a median of 144 days from submission to acceptance. 1 of 53 journals have a median under 60 days and 14 take more than 180 days.

Is this the peer review time?

No. PubMed records when a manuscript was received and when it was accepted, not the individual review stages. The interval includes editorial handling, peer review, revisions and the time authors spent revising, so it is longer than the time to a first decision. For first-decision times, check the journal’s own website.

Does a fast journal mean my paper is more likely to be accepted?

No. Only accepted papers have an acceptance date, so this ranking says nothing about acceptance rates or how quickly a journal rejects papers. A very fast acceptance can also be a sign of light peer review. Check the journal’s scope, indexing and peer-review policy before submitting.

About this data

Source: the received and accepted dates publishers deposit in PubMed, read through the public NCBI E-utilities for articles published 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31, up to 100 recent articles per journal. Data checked 2026-11-03.
A journal is ranked only when at least 20 articles have both dates and at least half of the articles checked have them. Journals that do not deposit dates in PubMed, including most journals outside the life sciences, cannot be ranked here.
The ranking uses each journal’s median: half of its accepted articles took less time and half took more. The middle-half range shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
Fields come from the OpenAlex classification of each journal’s research topics. A journal joins a field when at least two of its four main topics are in it, so a journal can appear in more than one field and some classifications are imperfect.
Quartile and score are the journal’s best OpenAlex subfield quartile and its Journal Metrics Score, shown for context; they play no part in the order.

The full journal-level dataset is in the journal acceptance times study (with a CSV download). Spot an error or a journal whose dates look wrong? Tell us.

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