Heliyon
| Discipline | Multidisciplinary |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publication details | |
| History | 2015–present |
| Publisher | |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Yes | |
| License | CC BY |
| 3.4 (2023) | |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Heliyon |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 2405-8440 |
| OCLC no. | 934910176 |
| Links | |
Heliyon is a monthly peer-reviewed open-access mega journal covering research in science, medicine and engineering. Unlike most of its competitors, the journal will consider for publication works reporting negative/null results, incremental advances, and replication studies,[1] thus filling the market niche, which became vacant after the discontinuation of the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine in 2017.
Heliyon was established in 2015 by Cell Press, a division of Elsevier. According to the publisher's website: "the [journal's] name is all about shining light on important research. Helios was the Greek god of the sun. This root word gave us inspiration, as we want this journal to illuminate knowledge across a broad spectrum."[2]
The journal is divided into numerous sections, each with its own editorial team. Articles are published under a CC BY open access license.
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
As of October 2024, the journal's indexation in the Science Citation Index Expanded is "on hold" and pending re-evaluation, with Web of Science citing the concerns on "the quality of the content published in this journal" as a reason for the suspension.[5][9]
The journal was put on hold by Clarivate Analytics after publication of a series of criticism by "Scholarly Criticism" which is a watchdog on Business Research. The first criticism was published on 14 January, 2024.[10] The second criticism was published on 21 April, 2024.[11] These articles raised significant questions on the credibility of quality control applied by the editors of the journal. A recent criticism was published on 26 December, 2025.[12]
In response to Clarivate's hold, the journal announced an internal audit, and records from Retraction Watch show the journal retracted 392 papers in 2025, a sharp uptick from 26 papers in 2024.[13]
References
- ^ "Cell Press: Heliyon".
- ^ "New open access journal Heliyon opens for submissions". www.elsevier.com.
- ^ "Serials cited". CAB Abstracts. CABI. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
- ^ "CAS Source Index". Chemical Abstracts Service. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
- ^ a b c d "Web of Science Master Journal List". Intellectual Property & Science. Clarivate . Retrieved 2021-12-24.
- ^ "Heliyon". Directory of Open Access Journals. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
- ^ "Heliyon". MIAR: Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
- ^ "Source details: Heliyon". Scopus Preview. Elsevier. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
- ^ Joelving, Frederik (September 30, 2024). "Web of Science puts mega-journals Cureus and Heliyon on hold". retractionwatch.com. Retraction Watch. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
- ^ Criticism, Scholarly (January 14, 2024). "Heliyon Publishes Ataei et al. (2024) Ignoring Major Theoretical and Methodological Problems: An Instance of Relaxed or Nescient Peer Review". scholarlycritic.com. Scholarly Criticism. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
- ^ Criticism, Scholarly (April 21, 2024). "Elsevier Unethically Promotes its Journals via Scopus: The Case of Heliyon". scholarlycritic.com. Scholarly Criticism. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
- ^ Criticism, Scholarly (December 26, 2025). "Heliyon by Elsevier/CellPress Publishes Anything You submit: A Golden Opportunity to Publish in Clarivate/Scopus Indexed Journal for PhD, Promotion, and Tenure". scholarlycritic.com. Scholarly Criticism. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
- ^ Orrall, Avery (3 February 2026). "Mega-journal Heliyon retracts hundreds of papers after internal audit". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 4 February 2026.