Distribution of 2018 journal impact factors in JCR’s category “Ecology” (cf. Table 1C). “NeoBiota” is shown separately. The median and mean impact factor of Open Access journals in JCR’s category “Ecology” is 2.08 and 2.12 (n = 23), respectively; for subscription journals, the median is 2.31 and mean 2.84 (n = 141). Thus, while the IF between Open Access and subscription journals does not strongly differ on average, there is a critical lack of Open Access journals with high impact factors—these are the journals where researchers aim to publish their best papers and that they highlight in their CVs.