INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY is published by Microbiology Society and is in Zone 4 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies, Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology and Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases, together about 57% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Published by the Microbiology Society and owned by the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), a committee of the Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology is the leading forum for the publication of novel microbial taxa and the ICSP’s official journal of record for prokaryotic names. The journal welcomes high-quality research on all aspects of microbial evolution, phylogenetics and systematics, encouraging submissions on all prokaryotes, yeasts, microfungi, protozoa and microalgae across the full breadth of systematics including: Identification, characterisation and culture preservationMicrobial evolution and biodiversityMolecular environmental work with strong taxonomic or evolutionary contentNomenclatureTaxonomy and phylogenetics. In addition to submitted work from researchers, the journal also publishes: Notification Lists: new names of prokaryotes, new combinations, and new taxonomic opinions that have been published in the journal.Official Validation Lists: names of new prokaryotes not published in the journal. For guidance, see section 'Valid publication of names published outside the journal' below.Official Candidatus Lists: Candidatus names of new prokaryotes not published in the journal. For guidance, see section 'Pro-valid publication of Candidatus names published outside the journal' below.Changes in Taxonomic Opinion: resulting from the creation of synonyms or emended descriptions to be made widely available to the public. The names that are to be used are those that are the ‘correct names’ (in the sense of Principle 6) in the opinion of the bacteriologist, with a given circumscription, position and rank. A particular name, circumscription, position and rank does not have to be adopted in all circumstances. Consequently, the List of Changes in Taxonomic Opinion must be considered as a service to bacteriology and it has no ‘official character’, other than providing a centralised point for registering/indexing such changes in a way that makes them easily accessible to the scientific community. Taxonomic opinions included in the List cannot be considered as validly published nor, in any other way, approved by the ICSP and its Judicial Commission. Scientists wishing to have changes in taxonomic opinion included in future lists should send a PDF file of the appropriate reprint to the journal.Opinions

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Microbiology

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

MEDLINEEmbaseCASCAB AbstractsCurrent ContentsPublisher website

Other: Google Scholar, AGRICOLA, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CSA Illustrata, Info-Med, SciSearch

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.

Impact

Impact factor

2.19LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore 2026-06

3.7LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR 2026-06

0.63LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

0.8LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

156LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

230OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

10,338OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

3.16OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

30.4%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

24.96%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

351LetPub · 2026-09-13

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.

Average review time (community reports)

about 1 monthLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

75%LetPub · 2026-09-13

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.

No source has fee information yet; check the journal's website.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

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.

Publisher

Microbiology Society

Country or region

United Kingdom

Language

English

Frequency

Continuous publication

Founded

1951

ISSN

1466-5026

Electronic ISSN

1466-5034

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Submission system ↗LetPub
• Author guidelines ↗LetPub
• Special issues ↗Publisher website