current research in microbiology impact factor

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Journal metrics update 2021

21 September 2021

The Microbiology Society is pleased to provide an update on our journal and article metrics. Our latest updates include a suite of metrics at both the journal level, and the article level, and demonstrate the continued excellence of the content published in the journals.

We would like to thank our authors and Society members for continuing to spread the word about the journals and the value of publishing for the community. Publishing in our journals directly supports all of the other activities undertaken by the Microbiology Society, including our events, policy work and grants and prizes.

We saw general increases in the vast majority of the metrics we track regularly, and as signatories of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, we will always be providing them together with no particular emphasis given to any one metric.

Below you will find metrics highlighting journal-level performance. Definitions of each metric are provided at the end.

In addition to the journal-level statistics, we also collate a number of stats based on the performance of the articles published therein. While these give a snapshot of the general level of interest in each article, we will always recommend individual articles be evaluated on their own merits - on our article pages we provide widgets highlighting the citations and Altmetric attention generated, and readers can see how many others have read the article by clicking on the Info tab at the top.

• 2-year Journal Impact Factor : The Journal Impact Factor is defined as all citations to the journal in the current JCR year to items published in the previous two years, divided by the total number of scholarly items (these comprise articles, reviews, and proceedings papers) published in the journal in the previous two years.
• 5-year Impact Factor : The 5-year journal Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the five previous years.
• Immediacy Index : The Immediacy Index is the average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published.
• Cited half-life : The median age of the articles that were cited in the JCR year. Half of a journal's cited articles were published more recently than the cited half-life.
• CiteScore : CiteScore measures average citations received per document published in the serial.
• SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper) : The SNIP measures actual citations received relative to citations expected for the serial’s subject field.
• Altmetrics : Altmetrics are non-traditional metrics proposed as an alternative to citation impact metrics. A paper’s Altmetric score is a weighted measure of its mentions in the press and on social media, among others, and is displayed on each article page.

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Current Research in Microbiology

Aims and scope.

Current Research in Microbiology is a peer reviewed international journal aimed to publish current research and review articles on microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms, includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes, which are bacteria and archaea. CRM is a broad based journal which also includes articles on virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology and other branches. Current Research in Microbiology is a specialist journal in microbiology.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the SGAMR Annual Awards 2020. This award is given annually to Researchers and Reviewers of International Journal of Structural Glass and Advanced Materials Research (SGAMR) who have shown innovative contributions and promising research as well as others who have excelled in their Editorial duties.

This special issue "Neuroinflammation and COVID-19" aims to provide a space for debate in the face of the growing evidence on the affectation of the nervous system by COVID-19, supported by original studies and case series.

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Microbiology Journals and Their Impact Factors

Impact factor (IF) is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is used to sort or rank journals by their relative importance. It is assumed that journals with high IF publish articles that are cited more often than journals with lower IF.

The most notable source for journal impact factors is the annual publication called the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) published by Thomson Scientific. Among Microbiology journals, Nature Reviews Microbiology has the highest impact factor of 60.63 in 2020.

Some journals do not consider the Impact Factor to be a reliable or useful metric to assess the performance of individual articles and do not promote impact factors. For example, PLOS supports DORA – the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – and does not promote our journal Impact Factors.

Calculation of Impact Factor

Thomson defines impact factor as, “The journal Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year. The Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the two previous years.

A journal’s impact factor for 2020 would be calculated by taking the number of citations in 2020 to articles that were published in 2019 and 2018 and dividing that number by the total number of articles published in that same journal in 2019 and 2018.

For example;  The number of cites in a journal named X in 2020 to items published in 2019 and 2018 are 1286 and 1134 respectively. Cites to recent items = cites in 2019 + cites in 2018 = 1286+ 1134 = 2420 The number of articles published in that journal in the same period is 61 in 2019 and 59 in 2018. Number of recent items = 61+ 59 = 120 Impact Factor = Cites to recent items/ Number of recent items = 2420/120 = 20.16 In that case, the impact factor of journal X in 2020 is 20.16.

2-year Journal Impact Factor: The Journal Impact Factor is defined as all citations to the journal in the current JCR year to items published in the previous two years, divided by the total number of scholarly items (these comprise articles, reviews, and proceedings papers) published in the journal in the previous two years.

An Impact Factor of 1.0 means that, on average, the articles published one or two year ago have been cited one time. An Impact Factor of 2.5 means that, on average, the articles published one or two year ago have been cited two and a half times. Citing articles may be from the same journal; most citing articles are from different journals

5-year Impact Factor: The 5-year journal Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the five previous years.

• Authors use impact factors to decide where to submit their research article for publication.
• Libraries use impact factors to make collection development decisions
• Academic departments use impact factors to assess academic productivity and to make decisions on promotion & tenure of faculties.

Some Microbiology Journals and their Impact Factors in 2020

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The coral microbiome in sickness, in health and in a changing world

• Christian R. Voolstra   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4555-3795 1   na1 ,
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Stony corals, the engines and engineers of reef ecosystems, face unprecedented threats from anthropogenic environmental change. Corals are holobionts that comprise the cnidarian animal host and a diverse community of bacteria, archaea, viruses and eukaryotic microorganisms. Recent research shows that the bacterial microbiome has a pivotal role in coral biology. A healthy bacterial assemblage contributes to nutrient cycling and stress resilience, but pollution, overfishing and climate change can break down these symbiotic relationships, which results in disease, bleaching and, ultimately, coral death. Although progress has been made in characterizing the spatial-temporal diversity of bacteria, we are only beginning to appreciate their functional contribution. In this Review, we summarize the ecological and metabolic interactions between bacteria and other holobiont members, highlight the biotic and abiotic factors influencing the structure of bacterial communities and discuss the impact of climate change on these communities and their coral hosts. We emphasize how microbiome-based interventions can help to decipher key mechanisms underpinning coral health and promote reef resilience. Finally, we explore how recent technological developments may be harnessed to address some of the most pressing challenges in coral microbiology, providing a road map for future research in this field.

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Acknowledgements

C.R.V. acknowledges support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) project numbers 433042944, 458901010 and 468583787. J.-B.R. is supported by an Australian Research Council Fellowship (FT210100100). C.P. is supported by a Junior Professorship Grant from Agence National de la Recherche (ANR; French National Research Agency) project number ANR-22-CPJ2-0113-01 and an associated start-up grant from the Institut Écologie et Environnement (INEE; Ecology and Environment Institute) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS; French National Centre for Scientific Research). R.S.P. acknowledges funding provided by KAUST (BAS/1/1095-01-01 and FCC/1/1976-40-01). S.A.A. is supported by Tamkeen under the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute Award to the NYUAD Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (ADHPG-CGSB). C.B.S. acknowledges funding provided by the NASA Exobiology Program (80NSSC23K0676). C.R.V. and R.S.P. acknowledge funding from KAUST (OSR-2021-NTGC-4984).

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Christian R. Voolstra, Jean-Baptiste Raina.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

Christian R. Voolstra & Melanie Dörr

Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia

Jean-Baptiste Raina

Department of Biology, American University, Washington, DC, USA

Anny Cárdenas

PSL Université Paris: EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR 3278 CRIOBE, Université de Perpignan, Perpignan, France

Claudia Pogoreutz

Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

Cynthia B. Silveira

Marine Microbiomics Laboratory, Biology Program, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Amin R. Mohamed & Shady A. Amin

Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

David G. Bourne

College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (CGSB), New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Shady A. Amin

Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) and Computational Biology Research Center (CBRC), Biological, Environmental Sciences, and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Raquel S. Peixoto

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C.R.V., R.S.P. and J.-B.R. researched data for the article, substantially contributed to discussion of content, wrote the article, and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. D.G.B. substantially contributed to discussion of content, and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. A.C., C.P., H.L., A.R.M., S.A.A. and C.B.S. researched data for the article, wrote the article, and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. C.R.V. conceived and, with M.D., designed the figures. M.D. illustrated the draft figures, wrote the article, and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Christian R. Voolstra , Jean-Baptiste Raina or Raquel S. Peixoto .

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Voolstra, C.R., Raina, JB., Dörr, M. et al. The coral microbiome in sickness, in health and in a changing world. Nat Rev Microbiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-024-01015-3

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Published : 04 March 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-024-01015-3

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Editorial: the impact of the space environment on microbial growth and behavior.

• 1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
• 2 University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• 3 Research Unit for Microbiology, Belgian Nuclear Research Center (SCK CEN), Mol, Belgium

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Keywords: space microbiology, Planetary protection, Microbial behavior, Habitability and astrobiology, spaceflight, Space environment adaptation, Microoranisms

Received: 22 Feb 2024; Accepted: 08 Mar 2024.

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* Correspondence: Camilla Urbaniak, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States

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