Editorial 2026

Molecular Ecology (MEC) remains one of the most prominent and influential journals in ecology and evolution.In 2024, the journal published 341 citable items, placing it third among 53 journals in Clarivate's Evolutionary Biology category.Citation patterns show a similar trend: MEC received 37,985 citations, ranking fourth in the field.Google Scholar metrics also reflect the journal's influence, with an h5-index of 71-again positioning MEC fourth among evolution-focused journals.Despite these strengths, MEC, like other evolutionary biology journals (Figure 1), continues to experience a decline in impact factor, which fell to 3.9 in 2024.Although the journal still holds the eighth-highest impact factor in this category, this drop has been discouraging, particularly given recent efforts to increase the number of reviews and special issues published in the journal.The downward trend partly reflects changes in impact factor calculations as well as intensifying competition for highimpact submissions.This decline has motivated some of the proposed changes in the editorial board structure at MEC, which are described below.