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The ISME Journal (abbreviated ISME J) is an open access journal of microbial ecology published by Oxford University Press for the International Society for Microbial Ecology. This page consolidates its scope, metrics, indexing and fee model as stated on the journal’s own pages, as read on 2026-11-07.
What The ISME Journal Is (and What ISME Stands For)
ISME stands for International Society for Microbial Ecology. The ISME Journal is the society’s flagship title and is published on the Oxford Academic platform by Oxford University Press. Its ISSNs are 1751-7370 (online) and 1751-7362 (print). The “ISME journal full form” is therefore “The ISME Journal”, where ISME is the society name.
Who Runs It and What It Covers
Oxford University Press publishes the journal, and the society itself is based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. According to the journal’s About page, it “covers the diverse and integrated areas of microbial ecology”. Topics named there include the microbiology of climate change, biogeochemical cycles, community assembly, host-microbiome interactions, and spatial and temporal dynamics.
Is it a journal related to microbiology?
Yes. It is a microbiology and ecology title, and its journal-level rankings below are in Ecology and Microbiology categories.
Metrics and Indexing
What is the impact factor of The ISME Journal?
The journal’s About page reports a 2025 Clarivate Impact Factor of 10.2 and a five-year impact factor of 13.2. Its Scopus CiteScore is reported as 17.9. The same page gives these ranks.
| Metric | Value | Category and rank |
|---|---|---|
| Impact Factor (Clarivate) | 10.2 | Ecology 7 of 205; Microbiology 15 of 167 |
| Five-year Impact Factor | 13.2 | Not ranked on the page |
| CiteScore (Scopus) | 17.9 | Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics 5 of 736; Microbiology 11 of 194 |
The two measures use different databases and windows, so they are not the same scale; see CiteScore vs impact factor.
Where is it indexed?
The About page lists BIOSIS, Medline, Google Scholar, OCLC, Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index Expanded, Current Contents (Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences; Life Sciences), several EBSCO databases, Scopus, Summon by ProQuest and PubMed Central. For how the large abstract databases differ, see Scopus vs Web of Science vs OpenAlex, and for the PubMed family, PubMed vs PubMed Central.
Open Access and Fees
The journal describes itself as fully open access, a change from its earlier model that took effect for 2024. The About page does not state an article processing charge (APC), and amounts quoted by third-party sites differ, so none is given here. The charges section of the journal’s OUP author guidelines and the society’s APC waivers page (isme-microbes.org/public/apc-waivers/) are where the current fee and waiver rules are set. For what the open access routes mean, see gold, green, diamond and hybrid open access.
How to Find and Submit
- Articles are hosted on the journal’s Oxford Academic site (academic.oup.com/ismej), and the journal is indexed in PubMed Central.
- Submissions go through Editorial Manager, reached from the journal’s “Submission Site” link at editorialmanager.com/ismej.
- Formatting rules, article types and charges are in the journal’s author guidelines on the same site, which are the authority rather than third-party summaries.
Strengths and Limits
Is The ISME Journal good?
Judged only by the figures the journal publishes, it ranks 7th of 205 in Ecology and 15th of 167 in Microbiology by Impact Factor, and the journal’s page describes it as ranked among the top 10 worldwide in Ecology and Microbiology. Fit matters more than rank for a given manuscript: the scope is microbial ecology, not clinical or applied microbiology.
- Strengths: broad indexing, open access full text, and a learned society behind it.
- Limits: metrics are journal-level and say nothing about an individual paper; fees apply under the open access model; the scope is narrower than general microbiology.
Related Journals
| Title | Relationship |
|---|---|
| ISME Communications | Listed under Publications on the society’s site, alongside The ISME Journal |
| ISME Host Microbe | Listed under Publications on the society’s site |
| Frontiers in Microbiology | Separate publisher; profile on this site covering scope, APC and review |
FAQ
What does ISME journal stand for?
ISME is the International Society for Microbial Ecology; the journal is The ISME Journal, abbreviated ISME J.
What is the impact factor of The ISME Journal?
10.2 (2025 Clarivate), with a five-year figure of 13.2, per the journal’s About page read on 2026-11-07.
Does The ISME Journal charge a publication fee?
It is fully open access, so an APC applies under that model. The charges section of the OUP author guidelines and the society’s waivers page set the current amount and any waiver.
Is ISME Communications the same journal?
No. It is a separate title listed alongside The ISME Journal on the society’s Publications menu.
Sources
- The ISME Journal, About (Oxford Academic): academic.oup.com/ismej/pages/about, read 2026-11-07.
- International Society for Microbial Ecology, About ISME: isme-microbes.org/about-isme, read 2026-11-07.
