Journal profile · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-Biotechnology
iMeta
ISSN 2770-5986 · eISSN 2770-596X · Wiley · Australia
iMeta: CAS Zone 1 · Biology (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 44.4 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 4,960; median 51 days to acceptance (94 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 7% (journal website); 123 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
iMeta is published by Wiley and is in Zone 1 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Gut microbiota and health, Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies and Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology, together about 41.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Why publish in iMeta? Fast decision times. 3 days to desk rejection, 23 days to first decision. Your research will be open access, resulting in more downloads, shares and cites. Video submissions make it easier for readers to access and digest content. Open data and codes will help further advance our knowledge and research and drive impact in the field. Figures are polished for the highest quality publication. Brief introduction iMeta (ISSN: 2770-5986, eISSN:2770-596X) is an open-access and Wiley partner journal and launched by iMeta Science. The journal aims to promote interdisciplinary and cutting-edge of biology, medicine or environment development by publishing original researches, reproducible methods or protocols, and systemic reviews. The goal is to publish highly impact papers with a wide range of readers, and to provide peers with novel findings, easy-to-use analysis tools, and systematic knowledge. A video from our partner, iMeta Science: Unique Features Video submission: 3~5 min video to introduce your work Reproducible: analysis method with video tutorial Figure polishing: to ensure highest quality output Promotion by social media: Facebook, X, WeChat, and Weibo with 600,000 followers in biology, medicine or environment Fully open access, with no barriers between your work and the global audience. Publishing is the beginning: news promotion, translated version, and method updates (protocols, software, database, or scripts) Scope Interdisciplinary and cutting-edge of biology, medicine or environment Microbiome in humans, animals, plants, and environment Metaomics methods/protocols development and application Bioinformatics tools, pipelines, databases, and packages Systematic review in biology, medicine or environment Indexing Information Biological Abstracts (Clarivate Analytics) BIOSIS (Clarivate Analytics) CAS: Chemical Abstracts Service (ACS) Current Contents: Life Sciences (Clarivate Analytics) Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Food Science & Technology Abstracts™ (IFIS) Open Access Journal Index – OAJ (NSLC & CEPIEC) PubMed (NLM) Science Citation Index Expanded (Clarivate Analytics) SCOPUS (Elsevier) Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) iMeta deposits all articles in PMC (PubMed Central).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-Biotechnology
Editor-in-chief Shuang-Jiang LiuPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 63 in mainland China (about 48%); most named Mainland China 63, United States 17, Hong Kong, China 8, United Kingdom 5, Germany 4 (131 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Gut microbiota and healthBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology25.6%
- Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology8.1%
- Microbial Community Ecology and PhysiologyEnvironmental Science8.1%
- Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.1%
- Bioinformatics and Genomic NetworksBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.1%
- Probiotics and Fermented FoodsAgricultural and Biological Sciences3.9%
- Diet and metabolism studiesMedicine3.9%
- Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens researchMedicine3.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Biology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Microbiology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Biology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Microbiology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePMCCASCurrent ContentsPublisher website
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 44.4Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 44.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 43.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 43.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 43.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 9.12LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 8.17LetPub ·
- h-index
- 64OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 262OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 23.78OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 1.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 60LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2Publisher website ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 107Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 732,534Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 471 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 75 | 75 | 119 |
| 2025 | 123 | 123 | 2,125 |
| 2024 | 116 | 116 | 5,224 |
| 2023 | 89 | 89 | 6,579 |
| 2022 | 68 | 68 | 9,290 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
51 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 31 days – 85 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 19 days (95 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 71 days
- Sample
- 94 articles with submission and acceptance dates (212 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 7 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 7%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 7%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 50 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 19 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 7 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 4,960 / GBP 4,130 / EUR 4,760 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 1,320 / EUR 1,210 / GBP 990 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,700 / GBP 1,986 / EUR 2,341 | Yes | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Article types accepted11, with length limits
- commentaryiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- correspondenceiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- editorialiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- letteriMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- opinioniMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- perspectiveiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- protocoliMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…main text ≤ 12,000 words
- research articleiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- research reportiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- review articleiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
- short communicationiMeta welcomes submissions in the following article types: Research Article, Short Communication, Review Article, Perspective, Protocol, Editorial, Commentary a…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
Free format submission offered; references may be in any style as long as consistent. Model summary
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data Sharing and Data Availability
This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Reproduction of Copyright Material
If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Wiley's Preprints Policy statement for open access journals
Fully open access journal; accepted papers pay an APC and are published under a CC-BY Creative Commons license. Model summary
iMeta will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. You may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Submission and Peer Review Process
Single-blind peer review; papers sent to review only if Editor-in-Chief determines quality and relevance requirements are met; in-house submissions handled to avoid bias. Model summary
New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal https://authors.wiley.com/journal/IMT2. You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission.wiley.com and clicking the “My Submissions” button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact submissionhelp@wiley.com. For help with submissions, please contact:…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint policy:
Preprints accepted; authors should update pre-publication versions with link to final published article and may post final version immediately after publication. Model summary
Please find the Wiley preprint policy here. This journal accepts articles previously published on preprint servers.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Country or region
- Australia
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2770-5986
- Electronic ISSN
- 2770-596X
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 5, Issue 4 (August 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about iMeta
What CAS zone is iMeta in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, iMeta is in Zone 1 of Biology, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Microbiology; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Biology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of iMeta?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 44.4 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 43.7, h-index 64.
How long does peer review take at iMeta?
Based on the dates recorded on 94 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 51 days (interquartile range 31–85 days); authors report an average review time of about 7 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 7% (2025). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of iMeta based?
Of the 131 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 63 (about 48%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (63), United States (17) and Hong Kong, China (8). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index iMeta?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, iMeta is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, PMC, CAS and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is iMeta open access, and what is the APC?
iMeta is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 4,960.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .