Microbiology

Microbiology (from Greek μῑκρος, mīkros, "small"; βίος, bios, "life"; and -λογία, -logia) is the study of microscopic organisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, mycology, parasitology, and bacteriology.

Eukaryotic micro-organisms possess membrane-bound cell organelles and include fungi and protists, whereas prokaryotic organisms—which all are microorganisms—are conventionally classified as lacking membrane-bound organelles and include eubacteria and archaebacteria. Microbiologists traditionally relied on culture, staining, and microscopy. However, less than 1% of the microorganisms present in common environments can be cultured in isolation using current means. Microbiologists often rely on extraction or detection of nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA sequences.

Viruses have been variably classified as organisms, as they have been considered either as very simple microorganisms or very complex molecules. Prions, never considered microorganisms, have been investigated by virologists, however, as the clinical effects traced to them were originally presumed due to chronic viral infections, and virologists took search—discovering "infectious proteins".

Microbiology (journal)

Microbiology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research in all aspects of microbiology, including the biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, developmental biology, physiology, pathogenicity, biodiversity, evolution, and genetics of microorganisms and viruses. It also covers plant–microbe interactions, and environmental and theoretical microbiology. The journal is published monthly by the Society for General Microbiology.

The journal was established in January 1947 as the Journal of General Microbiology and obtained its current name in 1994. Since 2010, the editor in chief has been Agnès Fouet (Institut Cochin, Paris).

The entire back archive, from 1947, is available online in PDF and (for papers published since 1997) in text formats. Papers are currently available free 12 months after print publication; additionally, all accepted papers are published immediately online ahead of final publication.

According to the Journal Citation Reports its 2010 impact factor is 2.853. It has a strong 5-year Impact factor (3.173), an Eigenfactor Score of 0.03612 and an Article influence score of 1.100. The journal has a long cited half-life of 8.1.