Companion Journal to Marine Ecology Progress Series and Aquatic Biology

AME and MEPS have received international recognition as the leaders in their respective fields of science

History

Aquatic Microbial Ecology (AME) was founded by Otto Kinne, Fereidoun Rassoulzadegan and John Dolan. It is the successor to 'Marine Microbial Food Webs', which was founded by P. Bougis and F. Rassoulzadegan and published by the 'Institut Océanographique, Fondation Albert 1er Prince de Monaco', Paris, from 1985 to 1994. The last issue of 'Marine Microbial Food Webs' was Volume 8, Number 2.

According to the Journal Citation Reports 2024 release, AME has an Impact Factor (IF) of 1.6 from 3384 total cites (5-year IF = 1.4), Immediacy Index = 0.2, Eigenfactor = 0.00056, JCI = 0.37.

Aim

AME serves as a worldwide forum for scientific communications on all aspects of aquatic microbial dynamics. In particular, the journal covers research on viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes - both planktonic and benthic, autotrophic and heterotrophic - in marine, limnetic and brackish habitats. AME strives for:

• complete coverage of the ecology of microorganisms in aquatic environments
• the highest possible quality of scientific contributions
• quick publication (3 months from acceptance to publication)
• an excellent technical standard of presentation

Scope

AME is international and interdisciplinary. It presents rigorously refereed and carefully selected Research Articles, Reviews and Notes, as well as Comments/Reply Comments (for details see AME 27:209), Opinion Pieces (previously called 'As I See It') and AME Specials. For details consult the Guidelines for Authors. Papers may be concerned with:

• Tolerances and responses of microorganisms to variations in abiotic and biotic components of their environment; microbial life under extreme environmental conditions (climate, temperature, pressure, osmolarity, redox, etc.).
• Role of aquatic microorganisms in the production, transformation and decomposition of organic matter; flow patterns of energy and matter as these pass through microorganisms; population dynamics; trophic interrelationships; modelling, both theoretical and via computer simulation, of individual microorganisms and microbial populations; biodiversity.
• Absorption and transformation of inorganic material; synthesis and transformation of organic material (autotrophic and heterotrophic); non-genetic and genetic adaptation; behaviour; molecular microbial ecology; symbioses.

Publication fees

The only publication fee charged by the journal is the Article Processing Charge (APC) for Open Access publication. There are no other article submission or publication fees such as page charges or colour charges.

Open Access articles attract far more attention than non-Open Access articles—in some cases more than 10-fold. Open Access articles are immediately available to a much broader audience, including the general public. This potentially results in a wider and greater impact and faster citation growth.

Authors may select Open Access publication for their article at the time of manuscript acceptance. Article Processing Charges (APCs) for publication apply. Open Access articles are published under the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) Licence. Copyright remains with the original copyright owners, and copying and re-use is almost unrestricted.

If Open Access is not selected, articles will be published with Subscriber Access (no publication fee), under which access is limited to the journal subscribers and copying and reuse of the article are restricted by normal copyright law. Fuller information on Open Access and policies on author self-archiving (‘Green’ Open Access) of Subscriber Access articles is found on the main Open Access page.

For Open Access, the APC is based on article type and date of article submission, so the final APC price is already fixed for APC funding applications necessary prior to article submission.

The Article Processing Charges (APCs) are:

Articles submitted on or after 1 November 2022

• €2500 for Research or Review articles
• €1250 for Notes
• € 650 for Opinion Pieces or Comments

Tax information

For purchases in the European Union, the VAT number of the paying institution must be provided, otherwise VAT will be added at the standard rate for the country of the purchaser. For Germany, VAT at 7% will always be added.

Fee discounts

Authors of studies originating from countries where limited funds are available for APCs can request to have the APC reduced. Applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and will require the provision to Inter-Research of specific funding and other resourcing information related to the study. In general a study must have been funded to at least 50% by a country eligible for the Research4Life program or classified by the World Bank as low or lower-middle income. A complete waiver of the APC is not available for journals where there is the option of publishing with Subscriber Access at no charge. Please apply to Feewaiver before submitting your manuscript.

Creative Commons Labelling

Only articles clearly marked with "CC BY" in the top right corner of the front page are published with the Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. The CC-BY option was not available for Inter-Research journals before 1 April 2013. Articles marked "Open Access" or "Free Access" but not marked "CC BY" are made freely accessible at the time of publication but are subject to standard copyright law regarding reproduction and distribution.