Last Updated on September 17, 2025 by Admin
For over a century, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) has been a top contender. It stands as one of the world’s most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals with a high impact factor of 9.1
PNAS at a Glance: Key Metrics for 2025
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) is one of the world’s most prestigious multidisciplinary scientific journals. Published by the National Academy of Sciences since 1914, PNAS covers biological, physical, and social sciences.
For researchers evaluating journals, key performance indicators provide a quick and reliable snapshot of a journal’s standing. The following table summarizes the most critical metrics for PNAS in 2025, compiled from the latest available data.
| Metric | Details |
| Publisher | National Academy of Sciences (NAS) |
| ISSN | 0027-8424 (Print); 1091-6490 (Web) |
| 2024 Impact Factor | 9.1 (Released by Clarivate in June 2025) |
| 5-Year Impact Factor | 10.6 |
| Journal Quartile | Q1 (Top 25%) in Multidisciplinary Sciences |
| Acceptance Rate | Approximately 15-19% |
| Average Time to Publication | ~6.6 months from submission |
| Article Processing Charge (APC) | $2,575 (Delayed Access) to $5,475 (Immediate Open Access) |
Impact Factor
SJR Rank
H-index
Journal Scope and Coverage
PNAS publishes research across three main categories:
• Biological Sciences – Cell biology, neuroscience, ecology, evolution
• Physical Sciences – Chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering
• Social Sciences – Psychology, economics, anthropology, political science
PNAS Impact Factor
Impact Factor (IF) or often called journal impact factor (JIF) is an index provided by an analytics company named Clarivate. The impact factor is calculated by dividing the number of times the articles are cited in the last two years by the total number of publications in those two years.
For example,
- Total Citations in 2020 and 2021 = 500
- Total Number of Publications in 2020 and 2021 = 100
- Impact Factor of the Journal in 2022 = 500/100 = 5
PNAS Impact Factor (2017-2025)
- PNAS Impact Factor 2017 – 9.504
- PNAS Impact Factor 2018 – 9.580
- PNAS Impact Factor 2019 – 9.412
- PNAS Impact Factor 2020 – 11.205
- PNAS Impact Factor 2021 – 12.777
- PNAS Impact Factor 2022 – 11.1
- PNAS Impact Factor 2023 – 9.4
- PNAS Impact Factor 2024 – 9.1 (updated in June 2025)
PNAS Impact Factor 2022
PNAS — Rank & Quartile Performance (2024)
| System | Rank (Category) | Quartile | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCImago (SJR) | #6 / 213 (Multidisciplinary) | Q1 | ~97th (calc. from rank/total) | SJR 3.414 |
| Web of Science (JCR) | #14 / 135 (Multidisciplinary Sciences) | Q1 | ~89.6th | JIF 9.1 · 5-yr JIF 10.6 |
| Scopus (CiteScore) | #10 / 200 (Multidisciplinary Sciences) | Q1 | 95th | CiteScore 16.5 · SNIP 2.383 |
PNAS Quartile & Rankings
- Quartile: Always Q1 in Multidisciplinary Sciences (Web of Science & Scopus).
- JCR (2024): 14th of 135 journals.
- Scopus (CiteScore): 10th of 200 (95th percentile).
- Google Scholar: Top-10 across major science categories.
- Publishes 3,500+ articles/year, offering broad scope and prestige.
PNAS is a Q1, globally elite journal — not as selective as Nature or Science, but uniquely combines high impact, wide reach, and accessibility across disciplines.
PNAS H-index
The h index is a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author’s scholarly output and performance; measures quantity with quality by comparing publications to citations.
The h index of PNAS Journal is 896, which means among all the published articles in this journal, 896 of these publications have received at least 896 citations each.
PNAS Journal Metrics
Comparative Analysis: PNAS vs. Top Competitors (2024)
| Metric (2024) | PNAS | Nature Communications | Science Advances | iScience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | National Academy of Sciences | Nature Portfolio | AAAS | Cell Press |
| Impact Factor (JIF) | 9.1 | 15.7 | 12.5 | 4.1 |
| 5-Year JIF | 10.6 | 17.2 | 14.1 | 4.7 |
| Acceptance Rate | ~15.6% | ~7.7% | Not disclosed | ~40.6% |
| APC (USD) | ~$4,975 (OA) | ~$6,290 | ~$4,500 | ~$3,150 |
PNAS Editorial Board Members
Editor in Chief: May R. Berenbaum
Senior Editors
- Huda Akil
- Angela M. Gronenborn
- Philippa Marrack
- Catherine J. Murphy
- Dolores R. Piperno
- Natasha V. Raikhel
- Peter J. Rossky
- Christine E. Seidman
- Neil H. Shubin
- B. L. Turner II
- Mary C. Waters
- David A. Weitz
- Owen N. Witte
PNAS Publication Fee
PNAS offers two Creative Commons licenses: CC BY-NC-ND and CC BY.
| APC | Available Licenses | |
|---|---|---|
| Delayed Open Access | $2,575 | CC BY-NC-ND |
| Immediate Open Access | $4,975 for corresponding authors from institutions with current-year site licenses (compared to our $5,475 regular fee) | CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY |
PNAS Review Time
PNAS prioritizes rapid publication and because its an open access journal, the papers are immediately available upon publication to the research community and beyond.
| Submission to First Decision | 11 days |
| Submission to first post-review decision | 46 days |
| Submission to publication | 6.6 months |
PNAS Reference Style
| Source | Example |
| Journal articles | 10. J.-M. Neuhaus, L. Sticher, F. Meins, Jr., T. Boller, A short C-terminal sequence is necessary and sufficient for the targeting of chitinases to the plant vacuole. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 10362–10366 (1991).C. Corsello et al., FOXP1-related intellectual disability syndrome: A recognizable entity. J. Med. Genet., in press. |
| Research datasets | 12. E. van Sebille, M. Doblin, Data from “Drift in ocean currents impacts intergenerational microbial exposure to temperature.” Figshare. Available at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3178534.v2. Deposited 15 April 2016. |
| Articles or chapters in books | 14. A. V. S. Hill, “HLA associations with malaria in Africa: Some implications for MHC evolution” in Molecular Evolution of the Major Histocompatibility Complex, J. Klein, D. Klein, Eds. (Springer, 1991), pp. 403–420. |
| Preprints | 15. H. Luetkens et al., Electronic phase diagram of the LaO1-xFxFeAs superconductor. arXiv [Preprint] (2008). https://arxiv.org/abs/0806.3533 (accessed 6 November 2020). |
| Conference proceedings | 7. C. Trepo, “Modelization of the epidemic” in Proceedings of the Twelfth International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease, H. Alter, J. Maynard, W. Szmuness, Eds. (Franklin Institute Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2006), pp. 809–810. |
| Archived code | 2. C. Reynaud et al., Tomography. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3712368. Deposited 15 July 2020. |
PNAS Endnote Style
You can download the PNAS Endnote Style and PNAS Zotero Style
PNAS Abbreviation
The ISO 4 standard abbreviation for abstracting, indexing and referencing purposes of PNAS is “P NATL ACAD SCI USA”
The PNAS Family: PNAS vs PNAS Nexus
- PNAS → Flagship, Q1 multidisciplinary journal. Publishes only high-impact, broadly significant research.
- PNAS Nexus (launched 2022) → Fully open access, multidisciplinary, broader scope.
PNAS Nexus Key Features
- 💡 Open Access: All articles free to read; APC ≈ $4,000.
- 🔄 Seamless Transfer: High-quality but non-selected PNAS papers can transfer easily.
- 📈 Impact Factor: Early JIF ~2.2 → now ~3.8, showing steady growth.
- 🌍 Positioning: Offers a trusted alternative to mega-journals like PLOS ONE or Scientific Reports.
PNAS = prestige & selectivity. PNAS Nexus = accessibility & open access reach, creating a cascade system that keeps more research within the PNAS ecosystem
PNAS Indexed in
Science is indexed in Scopus, SCImago, Web of Science, and UGC journal ranking
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