Journal profile
The American Naturalist
The American Naturalist is published by University of Chicago Press under ISSN 0003-0147. It holds an h-index of 423 across 24,971 indexed works, with a two-year mean citedness of 2.65, and is not fully open access. Its main subject areas are Plant and animal studies, Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies, Animal Behavior and Reproduction.
Below: the full publication record, and one real article from the journal formatted in IEEE, APA, and BibTeX so you can match field order against a source you can check.
Publication record and impact metrics
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
|---|---|
| ISSN-L | 0003-0147 |
| All ISSNs | 0003-0147, 1537-5323 |
| Indexed works | 24,971 |
| Total citations | 1,128,087 |
| h-index | 423 |
| 2-year mean citedness | 2.65 |
| Open access | Not fully open access |
| Main topics | Plant and animal studies · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Animal Behavior and Reproduction · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics · Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies |
Publication figures come from this journal's OpenAlex record, released under CC0, and are a dated snapshot rather than a live count. Check the publisher for current scope and submission requirements.
A worked example from this journal
The source
Phylogenies and the Comparative Method
- Authors
- Joseph Felsenstein
- Year
- 1985
- Volume
- 125
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-15
IEEE
J. Felsenstein "Phylogenies and the Comparative Method," The American Naturalist, vol. 125, no. 1, pp. 1-15, 1985, doi: 10.1086/284325.
IEEE prints author initials before the surname and abbreviates the periodical title. Check the abbreviation for The American Naturalist against your target publication's reference list before submitting.
APA
Felsenstein, J. (1985). Phylogenies and the Comparative Method. The American Naturalist, 125(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1086/284325
APA puts the year directly after the authors, keeps the full journal title in italics, and renders the DOI as a URL.
BibTeX
@article{felsenstein1985,
author = {Joseph Felsenstein},
title = {Phylogenies and the Comparative Method},
journal = {The American Naturalist},
volume = {125},
number = {1},
pages = {1--15},
year = {1985},
issn = {0003-0147},
doi = {10.1086/284325}
}The citation key is the first author's surname and the year. Keep it stable once it appears in a draft, because renaming it breaks every cite that used it.
What to verify before you submit
- The volume and page range. The American Naturalist records 24,971 works, and articles published online first can carry a different volume from the final issue. Cite the version you read.
- The abbreviated title. IEEE style uses standard periodical abbreviations, and registry metadata almost always returns the full name instead.
- Author name order. Registry records store full given names; IEEE and APA both want initials, formatted differently from each other.
- Whether the article is open access. This journal is not fully open access, which affects whether a reader can reach the version you cited.
- That the source supports your claim. A correctly formatted reference says nothing about whether the passage backs the sentence citing it.
How this journal sits in the record
The American Naturalist carries an h-index of 423, which is above 73% of the journals covered here, and its articles have accumulated 1,128,087 citations across 24,971 indexed works. Its two-year mean citedness is 2.65.
3 of the journals covered here are published by University of Chicago Press. Reference style is set per title rather than per publisher, so do not carry a format across from a sibling journal without checking.
These are indexing figures describing how often work in this venue is cited. They say nothing about whether a particular article is sound, and they are not a substitute for reading it.
Questions about The American Naturalist
What is the ISSN of The American Naturalist?
The linking ISSN is 0003-0147. The journal also carries 1537-5323, which usually separate the print and electronic editions. Use the linking ISSN in a BibTeX issn field.
Who publishes The American Naturalist?
University of Chicago Press publishes it. 3 journals covered here come from the same publisher, and they do not all share one reference style, so check the requirements for this title rather than the publisher.
Is The American Naturalist open access?
OpenAlex does not record it as fully open access. Some articles may still be open individually, so check the specific article rather than assuming from the journal.
How do I cite an article from The American Naturalist in LaTeX?
Use the BibTeX entry above as the pattern. The entry type is article, the journal field holds the full title, and the citation key felsenstein1985 follows the first author's surname and the year. Brace any acronym in the title so your bibliography style does not lowercase it.
Does The American Naturalist use page numbers or article numbers?
The example article runs from page 1 to 15, so this journal used page ranges at least for that volume. Newer issues in many journals switched to article numbers, so check the version you are citing.
How influential is The American Naturalist?
Its h-index is 423, above 73% of the journals covered here, and its articles have been cited 1,128,087 times in total. Its two-year mean citedness is 2.65. These are indexing figures, not a judgement of whether a specific article is sound.
Does The American Naturalist have a Journal Impact Factor?
Not one shown here. The Journal Impact Factor is Clarivate's metric, published in Journal Citation Reports and readable only with a JCR subscription, so this page does not restate it. The figures above come from OpenAlex: an h-index of 423 and a two-year mean citedness of 2.65 across 24,971 indexed works, captured on 2026-09-18. Mean citedness averages citations per work over a two-year window, which makes it closer in construction to CiteScore than to the Impact Factor. The three are not interchangeable, so quote whichever one your target venue actually asks for.