About

Aims and scope

Microbiome: The scope of the journal encompasses studies of microbiomes colonizing humans, animals, plants or the environment, both built and natural or manipulated, as in agriculture. Studies on the development and application of meta-omics approaches or novel bioinformatics tools, on community/host interaction with emphasis on structure-function relationship that would lead to substantial advances in the field will be considered for publication. Microbiome is especially interested in studies that go beyond descriptive omics surveys and include experimental or theoretical approaches that mechanistically support proposed microbiome functions, and establish, if possible, cause and effect relationships. Studies of individual microbial isolates/species in vivo or in laboratory cultures without exploring the mechanisms by which they affect the complex microbiome structures and functions will not be considered.

Through this collection of literature Microbiome hopes to integrate researchers with common scientific objectives across a broad cross-section of sub-disciplines within microbial ecology.

Microbiome works closely with its sister journals Environmental Microbiome and Animal Microbiome, and with BMC Microbiology. If a submission is more appropriate for one of these journals, the opportunity to transfer the manuscript files to these journal will be offered.

To facilitate the submission process, we are flexible with regard to the format, style and length of initial submissions. HOWEVER, data that supports the research within the manuscript MUST be made available at the time of submission.

For the purpose of peer review, please provide one editable manuscript document (such as .doc .docx or .RTF), with figures and tables placed in the body of the text at the point where they are referenced. Only LaTeX manuscripts should be submitted as a .pdf. You will be asked to provide .tex files at a later date.

Supplemental information and cover letters should be uploaded separately. Please refer to the submissions criteria regarding our policy on data.

Journal-specific formatting is required only at the revise stage after the first round of peer review.

Open access

All articles published by Microbiome are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in Microbiome you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article according to the licence terms.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, BMC can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article processing charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in Microbiome are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.

The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £3290.00/$4690.00/€3790.00

Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Open access funding

Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.

Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

2025 APCs

For information about the APC applicable for articles accepted for publication next year, please see our journal lists.

Indexing services

All articles published in Microbiome are included in:

BIOSIS
Current Contents
DOAJ
Embase
MEDLINE
PubMed Central
Science Citations Index Expanded

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by BioMed Central on SpringerLink.

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Edited by Jacques Ravel and Liz Wellington, Microbiome is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Microbiome operates a closed peer-review system. Manuscripts are initially screened by the journal's Editorial team (Editors-in-Chief, Senior Editors and Associate Editors) and suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two reviewers for consideration. Decisions will be made on the recommendations of the reviewers, but final decisions lie with the Editorial team.

Authors will be able to check the progress of their manuscript at any point of the peer review process by logging into the submission system.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Microbiome should adhere to BioMed Central's editorial policies.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Citing articles in Microbiome

Articles in Microbiome should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

Authors: Title. Microbiome [year], [volume number]:[article number].

e.g. Roberts LD, Hassall DG, Winegar DA, Haselden JN, Nicholls AW, Griffin JL: Increased hepatic oxidative metabolism distinguishes the action of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta from Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma in the Ob/Ob mouse. Microbiome 2009, 1:115.

refers to article 115 from Volume 1 of the journal.

Resubmissions policy

Please note, we may consider resubmissions of rejected manuscripts only if the handling Editor specifically states in the original decision letter that the manuscript will be reconsidered.

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies .

Benefits of publishing with BMC

High visibility

Microbiome's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience.

Speed of publication

Microbiome offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF.

Flexibility

Online publication in Microbiome gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Microbiome are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be highlighted on Microbiome’s pages and on the BMC homepage.

In addition, articles published in Microbiome may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Microbiome. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BMC is available here.

Copyright

As an author of an article published in Microbiome you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work. For further information, see our guide to licensing, copyright and author rights.

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BMC, please click here.