PeerJ

PeerJ Template

Write in a clean editor, then format for PeerJ in one click — DocuGuru applies the official PeerJ template with author–year references and exports a submission-ready PDF plus the editable LaTeX source. Free to start.

About the PeerJ format

PeerJ is a peer-reviewed journal published by PeerJ, covering Plant and animal studies, Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies, Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies. Over its lifetime it has published 21,595 papers, which have received 442,192 citations.

PublisherPeerJ
Reference styleAuthor–year (APA)
Author–year — (Smith, 2023) in the text
Smith, A., Jones, B., & Lee, C. (2023). A representative article title. PeerJ, 12(3), 45–58.

Formats any DOI in PeerJ style. No sign-up.

Publishes research inPlant and animal studies Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies Species Distribution and Climate Change Evolution and Paleontology Studies
ISSN2167-8359
Citation impact (2-yr)3.11
h-index167
i10-index10,973
Article processing charge$1,395
Open accessYes — indexed in DOAJ
Top institutions publishing hereChinese Academy of Sciences
Journal websitewww.peerj.com
You getA submission-ready PDF and the editable LaTeX source — ready to submit.

Papers published in PeerJ per year

475
2014
803
2015
1.3K
2016
1.4K
2017
1.9K
2018
2.1K
2019
2.3K
2020
2.1K
2021
1.9K
2022
2.1K
2023
2K
2024
1.7K
2025

Citation impact of PeerJ by publication year

32.2K
2014
33.9K
2015
54.4K
2016
44.7K
2017
63.4K
2018
60K
2019
48.8K
2020
32.7K
2021
23.2K
2022
17.4K
2023
10.8K
2024
3.1K
2025

Citations each year’s papers have accumulated so far — the most recent years are still building up.

Most-cited papers in PeerJ

VSEARCH: a versatile open source tool for metagenomics

Torbjørn Rognes, Tomáš Flouri, Ben Nichols et al. · 18 Oct 2016

BACKGROUND: VSEARCH is an open source and free of charge multithreaded 64-bit tool for processing and preparing metagenomics, genomics and population genomics nucleotide sequence data. It is designed as an alternative to the widely used USEARCH tool (Edgar, 2010) for which the source code is not publicly available, algorithm details are only rudimentarily described, and…

11,112 citations Cite SaveGo to paper →
scikit-image: image processing in Python

Stéfan van der Walt, Johannes L. Schönberger, Juan Nunez-Iglesias et al. · 19 Jun 2014

scikit-image is an image processing library that implements algorithms and utilities for use in research, education and industry applications. It is released under the liberal Modified BSD open source license, provides a well-documented API in the Python programming language, and is developed by an active, international team of collaborators. In this paper we highlight the…

7,050 citations Cite SaveGo to paper →
MetaBAT 2: an adaptive binning algorithm for robust and efficient genome reconstruction from metagenome assemblies

Dongwan Kang, Feng Li, Edward Kirton et al. · 26 Jul 2019

We previously reported on MetaBAT, an automated metagenome binning software tool to reconstruct single genomes from microbial communities for subsequent analyses of uncultivated microbial species. MetaBAT has become one of the most popular binning tools largely due to its computational efficiency and ease of use, especially in binning experiments with a large number of samples…

3,979 citations Cite SaveGo to paper →
<i>Poppr</i> : an R package for genetic analysis of populations with clonal, partially clonal, and/or sexual reproduction

Zhian N. Kamvar, Javier F. Tabima, Niklaus J. Grünwald · 4 Mar 2014

Many microbial, fungal, or oomcyete populations violate assumptions for population genetic analysis because these populations are clonal, admixed, partially clonal, and/or sexual. Furthermore, few tools exist that are specifically designed for analyzing data from clonal populations, making analysis difficult and haphazard. We developed the R package poppr providing unique tools for analysis of data from…

3,179 citations Cite SaveGo to paper →
MetaBAT, an efficient tool for accurately reconstructing single genomes from complex microbial communities

Dongwan Kang, Jeff Froula, Rob Egan et al. · 27 Aug 2015

Grouping large genomic fragments assembled from shotgun metagenomic sequences to deconvolute complex microbial communities, or metagenome binning, enables the study of individual organisms and their interactions. Because of the complex nature of these communities, existing metagenome binning methods often miss a large number of microbial species. In addition, most of the tools are not scalable…

2,127 citations Cite SaveGo to paper →

PeerJ template — frequently asked questions

How do I write a paper in the PeerJ format?
In DocuGuru you write your manuscript in a normal editor — no LaTeX setup required — and select the PeerJ template. When you export, DocuGuru compiles the paper into the official PeerJ format and hands you a submission-ready PDF along with the editable LaTeX source.
What reference style does PeerJ use?
PeerJ uses Author–year (APA) references, shown as author–year markers such as (Smith, 2023) in the text. DocuGuru formats every in-text citation and the reference list in this exact style automatically. A reference appears like this: Smith, A., Jones, B., & Lee, C. (2023). A representative article title. PeerJ, 12(3), 45–58.
Do I need to know LaTeX to submit to PeerJ?
No. DocuGuru generates the wlpeerj LaTeX class and compiles the PDF for you in the background, so you get a PeerJ-ready PeerJ document without writing any LaTeX. If you do want it, the LaTeX source is included in the export.
Can I import an existing draft into the PeerJ template?
Yes. Paste or upload your current manuscript — Word, LaTeX, Markdown, or plain text — and DocuGuru reflows it into the PeerJ format with correct headings, figures, tables, and author–year citations.
What is PeerJ?
PeerJ is an open access, peer-reviewed journal covering the biological and medical sciences. It is a life sciences and medicine journal, published by PeerJ.
Can I export a submission-ready PeerJ PDF?
Yes — DocuGuru produces a PDF built with the official PeerJ template (the wlpeerj class) that is ready to submit to PeerJ, together with the matching LaTeX source files.
How much does the PeerJ template cost?
You can start writing in the PeerJ template for free. Exporting the final submission-ready PeerJ PDF and LaTeX source is part of DocuGuru's paid plans — see the app for current pricing.
Use the PeerJ template