Journals on water science and technology: water and wastewater treatment, desalination, membranes, water chemistry and water resources. All 46 journals are ranked by the 2026 Journal Metrics Score, with each journal's quartile in water science and its h-index.
Updated August 2026 · 2-year citation average from OpenAlex data
Treatment and separation-engineering journals collect citations quickly and dominate the top of the list. Hydrology and water-management journals usually score lower.
| Rank | Journal | 2026 score | Quartile | h-index | Publisher | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Environmental Chemistry Letters | 29.7 | Q1 | 189 | Springer Science+Business Media | Germany |
| 2 | Nature Water | 17.2 | Q1 | 74 | – | – |
| 3 | JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS | 10.0 | Q1 | 427 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 4 | SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY | 9.2 | Q1 | 235 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 5 | Desalination and Water Treatment | 8.1 | Q1 | 105 | Taylor & Francis | United States |
| 6 | Journal of Water Process Engineering | 7.1 | Q1 | 142 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 7 | Applied Water Science | 6.6 | Q1 | 129 | Springer Nature | Germany |
| 8 | Water Resources and Industry | 6.3 | Q1 | 63 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 9 | Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering | 5.8 | Q1 | 188 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 10 | ACS ES&T Engineering | 5.7 | Q1 | 66 | American Chemical Society | United States |
| 11 | Environmental Processes-An International Journal | 5.7 | Q1 | 57 | Springer Science+Business Media | Switzerland |
| 12 | Water Cycle | 5.2 | Q1 | 27 | Elsevier BV | China |
| 13 | Sustainable Environment Research | 4.9 | Q1 | 66 | BioMed Central | China |
| 14 | South African Journal of Chemical Engineering | 4.6 | Q1 | 56 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 15 | ACS ES&T Water | 4.2 | Q1 | 58 | American Chemical Society | United States |
| 16 | Journal of Environmental Informatics | 4.2 | Q1 | 46 | – | – |
| 17 | Water Conservation Science and Engineering | 4.2 | Q1 | 32 | Springer Science+Business Media | Singapore |
| 18 | International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology | 4.1 | Q1 | 134 | Springer Science+Business Media | – |
| 19 | Water Quality Research Journal | 4.1 | Q1 | 10 | – | – |
| 20 | Chemical Engineering Journal Advances | 4.0 | Q1 | 64 | Elsevier BV | Netherlands |
| 21 | Frontiers in Water | 3.9 | Q2 | 50 | Frontiers Media | Switzerland |
| 22 | Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering | 3.8 | Q2 | 84 | Springer International Publishing | United Kingdom |
| 23 | Environmental Engineering Research | 3.7 | Q2 | 59 | Korean Society of Environmental Engineering | South Korea |
| 24 | Water Practice and Technology | 3.2 | Q2 | 41 | UWA Publishing | – |
| 25 | International Journal of Environmental Research | 3.0 | Q2 | 49 | Springer Science+Business Media | – |
| 26 | Water Reuse | 3.0 | Q2 | 13 | IWA Publishing | – |
| 27 | Air Soil and Water Research | 2.9 | Q2 | 36 | SAGE Publishing | United States |
| 28 | Environmental Science-Water Research & Technology | 2.6 | Q2 | 87 | Royal Society of Chemistry | United Kingdom |
| 29 | ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE | 2.2 | Q2 | 87 | Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. | United States |
| 30 | JOURNAL OF WATER RESOURCES PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT | 2.2 | Q2 | 139 | American Society of Civil Engineers | United States |
| 31 | ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY | 2.0 | Q2 | 110 | Taylor & Francis | United Kingdom |
| 32 | POLISH JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES | 1.6 | Q3 | 74 | HARD Publishing Company | Poland |
| 33 | WATER AND ENVIRONMENT JOURNAL | 1.3 | Q3 | 66 | Wiley | United Kingdom |
| 34 | Archives of Environmental Protection | 1.2 | Q3 | 34 | De Gruyter Open | Poland |
| 35 | RBRH-Revista Brasileira de Recursos Hidricos | 1.2 | Q3 | 33 | Brazilian Association of Water Resources | Brazil |
| 36 | CLEAN-Soil Air Water | 1.1 | Q3 | 83 | Wiley | Germany |
| 37 | Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education | 1.1 | Q3 | 38 | Wiley | United States |
| 38 | Ingenieria del Agua | 0.9 | Q3 | 16 | IWA Publishing | Spain |
| 39 | WATER SA | 0.9 | Q3 | 84 | Water Research Commission | South Africa |
| 40 | Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Ambientais | 0.8 | Q3 | 15 | – | Brazil |
| 41 | Environment Protection Engineering | 0.7 | Q3 | 24 | – | Poland |
| 42 | Avances en Ciencias e Ingenieria | 0.6 | Q4 | 4 | Executive Business School | – |
| 43 | Environmental Engineering and Management Journal | 0.6 | Q4 | 49 | Polytechnic Institute of Iasi | – |
| 44 | Pakistan Journal of Analytical & Environmental Chemistry | 0.3 | Q4 | 13 | National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemsitry | – |
| 45 | Tecnologia y Ciencias del Agua | 0.2 | Q4 | 16 | Mexican Institute of Water Technology | Mexico |
| 46 | Hrvatske Vode | 0.0 | Q4 | 4 | – | – |
Most water science journals on this list are published in Netherlands (7), United States (7), United Kingdom (4), Germany (3), Poland (3).
By the 2026 Journal Metrics Score, the five highest-ranked water science journals are Environmental Chemistry Letters, Nature Water, JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, Desalination and Water Treatment. The score is a two-year citation average, so check each journal's scope and article types before choosing where to submit.
20 of the 46 water science journals on this page are Q1, meaning they rank in the top quarter of their OpenAlex subfield by score. 11 are Q2, 10 are Q3 and 5 are Q4.
A journal is included when at least two of its four main OpenAlex research topics are classified under Water Science and Technology. Journals are ordered by the 2026 Journal Metrics Score: citations received in the latest complete year to works published in the two years before, divided by the number of those works. Quartiles compare each journal with every journal in the same subfield.