In honour of the upcoming International Women’s Day 2026 celebrations, this month we’re shining our Journal Spotlight onto Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Land is an international, peer-reviewed Open Access journal on land system science, landscape, soil and water, and urban study, which extends into cross-disciplinary topics such as the water–energy–land–food nexus to address current global challenges related to sustainable land and resource management.

Through its Influential Female Researcher in Land System Science Award, the journal is committed to raising the profile of female researchers in its field. Also, with a tenured female Editor-in-Chief (EiC) at its helm, this year’s International Women’s Day presents the perfect time to explore its history, contents, metrics and community.

Editor in Chief: Prof. Dr. Christine Fürst

Current Impact Factor: 3.2

Current CiteScore: 5.9

Statistics as of February 2026.

A Land MDPI timeline

• 2012 – Inaugural issue was released
• 2015 – Land was indexed in ESCI (Web of Science)
• 2016 – Land was indexed in Scopus (Elsevier)
• 2017 – Land became affiliated with the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE)
• 2019 – Land was indexed in SSCI (Web of Science)
• 2020 – Land became affiliated with the European Land-use Institute (ELI)
• 2021 – 10th Anniversary of Land, Prof. Dr. Christine Fürst became EiC
• 2022 – Land became affiliated with the Urban Land Institute (ULI)
• 2025 – Land received its 2024 Impact Factor (3.2) and CiteScore (5.9)

Editor-in-Chief

A forest scientist specialising in social–ecological systems research, Prof. Dr. Christine Fürst has been the EiC of the Land journal since 2021. She sees her role as an opportunity to work alongside the community of land system scientists and develop a platform for publications in this field.

A Professor at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Prof. Dr. Fürst holds an impressive arsenal of accolades which position her as an ideal leader for the journal. Her previous has included the development of modelling approaches for social-ecological systems and progressing environmental assessments and evaluation of ecosystem services.

From 2015 to 2019, she was the President of the International Association for Landscape Ecology and continues to contribute to international policy through the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Future Earth Water-Energy-Food Nexus Knowledge-Action Network.

See MDPI’s interview with Prof. Dr. Fürst, where she discusses her research and the journal Land.

Aims & scope

In the journal’s first editorial piece, Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington discusses the importance of land sciences and the land-related challenges the world faces. The editorial highlights the global relevance of land-related issues, stating that, while research topics and approaches always fluctuate, there are always new issues to be addressed.

“[Land’s] aim is to be comprehensive and inclusive of the ways to research land-related issues; for example, using historical archives, remote sensing, spatial modeling, land valuation, environmental economics, and a wide range of other techniques from agricultural science and forestry, environmental science, soil science, geography, planning and economics.” – Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington, EiC (2012–2021)

The journal has a wide scope which includes, but is not limited to, lands systems science and social–ecological systems research, land-related aspects of nature and biodiversity governance, and land innovations.

A full list of topics in the journal’s scope can be found here.

Journal metrics

Most cited

The Land publication that holds the accolade of most cited paper, as of February 2026, is an article titled “Soil-Related Sustainable Development Goals: Four Concepts to Make Land Degradation Neutrality and Restoration Work”.

Impact Factor

Land received its first Impact Factor of 2.4 in 2019 and currently holds an Impact Factor rating of 3.2.

The journal is placed in Q2 for the “Environmental Studies” Journal Citation Report (JCR) category.

CiteScore

The Land journal’s CiteScore sits at 5.9 as of 2026.

Land is positioned in Q1 for two different CiteScore categories, “Nature and Landscape Conservation” and “Ecology” and is in Q2 for the “Global and Planetary Change” category.

Indexing

Land is indexed within a large range of databases and archives, including:

• AGRIS
• AGRICOLA
• Dimensions
• DOAJ
• OSTI
• Scopus (Elsevier)
• SSCI (Web of Science)

Access the complete list of associated indexing services here.

Altmetrics

As of February 2026, Land has received 798 mentions in policy documents, 33 mentions in patents and 1,145 mentions across various news outlets and blogs.

The Land community

MDPI’s Land journal is enthusiastic about fostering positive relationships with the academic community it serves, and does this through various awards, affiliations and conferences.

Awards

The Land awards that are currently open for nominations are:

• Young Investigator Award (nomination deadline 31 March 2026)
• Influential Female Researcher in Land System Science Award (nomination deadline 31 December 2026)

The journal also has several upcoming winner announcements, including the Land Outstanding Review Award on 31 March 2026 and the Land Best Paper Award on 30 June 2026.

Learn more about Land awards here, and read our blog article on MDPI’s award programme here.

Affiliations

Land became affiliated with the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) in 2017. The foundation’s mission is to push landscape ecology as the scientific basis for the analysis, planning and management of landscapes to stimulate inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration.

Later, in 2019, Land became affiliated with the European Land-use Institute (ELI), an interdisciplinary network of scientists working on how to integrate research on urban, agro-ecological, forest and water systems through cross-sectional research.

More recently, in 2022, the journal became affiliated with the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a non-profit organisation aiming to shape the future of the built environment to exert a transformative impact on communities worldwide.

Learn more about the societies affiliated with Land here.

Conferences

Conferences present a valuable opportunity to connect wider academic communities, particularly for journals such as Land.

Land hosted the 2^nd International Electronic Conference on Land in September 2025, which addressed the philosophy and key interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodological approaches of land system sciences.

Relevant topics to the study of land science will also be featured across various upcoming MDPI conferences, such as the The 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests and The 1st International Online Conference on Earth Science.

See more information regarding upcoming events related to the Land journal.

Testimonials

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the editors we communicated with, who were highly dedicated and provided us with constructive and valuable feedback, ensuring that the collaboration proceeded in the best possible way. The reviewers’ insightful questions and suggestions greatly enhanced the quality of the manuscript. I also greatly appreciate the clarity and user-friendliness of the submission platform, which made the entire process of submitting the manuscript and accompanying materials straightforward. The high scientific standards of publications at MDPI guarantee excellent visibility for published results, and I look forward to future collaborations.” – Prof. Dr. Irena Kuletin Ćulafić, Author

“MDPI is a well-established organisation that actively supports researchers in developing special issues. It stands out for the professionalism and accessibility of its management and editorial teams, who are always ready to provide assistance. Its editorial policies are particularly effective in attracting and promoting high-quality publications.” – Teodoro Semeraro, Guest Editor

Submitting a manuscript

Manuscripts for Land should be submitted online at susy.mdpi.com.

Prior to submitting, we recommend that authors explore the useful resources on our author guidelines webpage.

The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer review process.

To submit your manuscript, register and login to the submission website. Once you have registered, click here to go to the submission form. All co-authors can see the manuscript details in the submission system if they register and login using the e-mail address provided during manuscript submission.

If you’d like to find out more about Land and its publication process, please visit the journal website.

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