From the Editorial Team

Microbiology Australia, the official journal of the Australian Society for Microbiology, works towards publishing content that is of interest and benefit to ASM members. It does this with contributions and feedback from members, through its Editorial Board, which meets five times each year (usually by teleconference), and through support from CSIRO Publishing. Articles in the thematic issues are usually solicited via Guest Editors who are knowledgeable in the particular topic of the issue. The aim is produce topical informative articles that are readable by the ASM audience who have very broad interests.

As Editor-in-Chief of Microbiology Australia, I orchestrate the management of the journal and I also work part time at RMIT University. I am assisted by Rebekah (right) and Hayley (left), who each manage two issues per year, organising the contributions, the reviews and the completion of articles to meet the publication schedule. Between them they may be handling up to four issues at once!

Microbiology Australia’s open access policy means that articles and whole issues are downloaded ~300 000 times per annum. The excellence of the articles means that access to them continues long after their original publication: in general, download rates are increasing as years pass and a decade old issue still has almost 20 000 downloads each year. The relevance to student education is huge. I refer my Microbiology students to particular articles and I know of other instances where some issues are ‘compulsory reading’.

A few years ago the Editorial Board decided to further increase the profile of Microbiology Australia by seeking listings in the major citation indices. Our pathways to listings are progressing well due to the high standard of articles, peer review, adherence to strict journal policies (see http://microbiology.publish.csiro.au/nid/214.htm and http://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies), including membership of COPE (Committee for Publication Ethics) and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). In December 2015 Microbiology Australia was listed with ESCI (Thompson Reuter’s Emerging Sources Citation Index) and in February 2018 with Scopus.

Suggestions for future issues and items of interest to ASM members (e.g. book reviews, new methods, hot topics) are always welcomed.