Aims and Scope
The International Journal of Clinical Microbiology publishes fundamental and applied research in clinical laboratory and infection-related microbiology, including human and animal pathogens, clinically relevant microbial communities, and the methods and evidence that support diagnosis, surveillance, prevention and care.
What the journal publishes
IJCM is a clinical microbiology journal. It sits where microbiology, laboratory medicine, infectious disease and diagnostics meet, and its subject is the microbiological evidence itself rather than any one of those fields in general.
A manuscript is in scope when its central contribution advances clinical laboratory microbiology or infection-related microbial biology: detection, identification, pathogen or microbial-community characterization, typing, susceptibility, or the development, interpretation and use of microbiological methods and evidence. Original data, rigorous reanalysis of existing data, evidence synthesis and scholarly commentary can each make that contribution.
The journal welcomes studies from clinical and veterinary laboratories, research settings and public health systems worldwide. The connection to a clinical laboratory or infection-related microbial question must be clear; immediate clinical deployment or a demonstrated improvement in patient outcomes is not required for scope eligibility.
Scope eligibility and the strength of evidence are assessed separately. Studies should use methods and reporting appropriate to their design, with transparent data provenance, limitations and conclusions supported by the evidence. Statistical significance, a large sample, a complete mechanism and clinical validation are not universal requirements for eligibility. Diagnostic accuracy studies need a justified reference standard; exploratory laboratory studies need appropriate controls; observational and qualitative studies need transparent sampling and analysis. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. See the instructions for authors and editorial policies for applicable requirements.
Core scientific domains
These domains describe the journal's central interests. The examples are illustrative; eligibility depends on the clinical microbiological contribution, not on a topic label alone.
Diagnostic bacteriology. Recovery, culture and identification of bacterial pathogens from clinical specimens; biochemical profiling, mass spectrometry and phenotypic characterization; the interpretation of a culture result, including colonization against infection.
Clinical virology. Detection of viral pathogens by nucleic-acid amplification, antigen and serological methods; viral load measurement; assay verification against clinical material; the laboratory identification of emerging and re-emerging viruses.
Medical mycology. Culture, microscopy and identification of yeasts and molds; antifungal susceptibility testing and its interpretation; the laboratory diagnosis of invasive and superficial fungal disease, including infection in immunocompromised patients.
Clinical parasitology. Microscopy, staining, antigen and molecular detection of protozoa and helminths; the diagnosis of parasitic disease, including the many settings in which microscopy remains the working method.
Antimicrobial resistance. Susceptibility testing, resistance mechanisms and their phenotypic and genotypic detection, resistance surveillance in defined populations, and the reporting practice that supports diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship.
Molecular diagnostics. Amplification, multiplex and syndromic panels, sequencing-based detection and mass-spectrometric identification, assay design, and the verification of molecular methods in the setting where they will be used.
Clinical microbial genomics. Whole-genome and targeted sequencing applied to identification, strain typing, outbreak investigation, molecular epidemiology, and the prediction of resistance from genotype, together with the question of how far a genotypic prediction can be relied on against a phenotypic result.
Diagnostic and laboratory research
Work on the methods themselves is primary research here, not supporting material. A study whose subject is how well a test performs is as much a contribution as one that uses the test.
Diagnostic accuracy. Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values against a stated reference standard, reported with the population and prevalence they were measured in.
Method development and verification. New or modified assays, analytical proof-of-concept studies, and verification in new settings, specimen types or populations. Culture, molecular, antigen and serological methods across organism groups are included. The evidence should match the development stage and intended claim; early methods need not already be clinically deployed.
Specimen and pre-analytical work. Collection, transport, storage, acceptance and rejection criteria, and their effect on what the laboratory can subsequently report.
Point-of-care and decentralized testing. Near-patient microbiological testing, including its performance and its limits outside a reference laboratory.
Quality and biosafety. Internal and external quality assessment, proficiency testing, standardization, competence, containment practice and specimen handling.
Laboratory capacity and workflow. Automation, diagnostic access, workflow, biosafety and quality systems as they affect microbiological testing, including resource-limited settings. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies can address defined laboratory questions.
Infection prevention microbiology. Outbreak investigation, surveillance of healthcare-associated organisms, environmental and screening cultures, and the laboratory work that supports infection prevention — where the microbiological evidence is central to the study.
Antimicrobial resistance
The journal welcomes research on antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance mechanisms and the interpretation and use of resistance evidence in clinical microbiology.
- In scope
- Susceptibility testing methods and their comparison; breakpoint and interpretive-category questions; the detection and characterization of resistance mechanisms; genotypic resistance detection and its agreement with phenotype; resistance prevalence in a defined and described isolate collection; the way resistance is reported and how that reporting supports stewardship.
- In scope conditionally
- Stewardship and therapy studies that investigate microbiological testing, resistance or interpretation as a central contribution. Data may be newly generated or obtained from routine laboratory records, registries or other documented sources.Data quality, provenance, selection and analytical limitations must support the claims.
- Outside
- Medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, drug discovery and treatment trials without a substantive clinical microbiological question.Studies of susceptibility, microbial killing, resistance or pathogen biology are considered on their microbiological contribution, including appropriately framed laboratory studies using reference strains.
Molecular and genomic microbiology
Molecular and genomic research is in scope when it addresses pathogen biology, detection, identification, resistance, transmission or another defined clinical microbiological question concerning human or animal infection.
- In scope
- Sequencing and molecular typing for identification, strain attribution, outbreak investigation and genomic epidemiology; resistance-determinant detection; assay and primer development; and bioinformatic methods addressing clinical microbiological questions. Evaluation should match the claim, using appropriate reference materials, datasets or clinical specimens.
- In scope conditionally
- Virulence, pathogenesis and host–pathogen studies that explain infection-related microbial behavior, resistance, transmission or laboratory interpretation. Mechanistic work may use in vitro systems or animal models without an immediate diagnostic application.General molecular biology or immunology without a defined infection-related microbiological contribution is outside scope.
- Microbiome
- Studies with a defined clinical question: association with a disease state or infection risk, diagnostic or monitoring application, dysbiosis in a described patient group, or method work on microbiome measurement in clinical specimens.Descriptive community surveys without a clinical question, and non-clinical microbial ecology, are outside scope.
Interdisciplinary work
Interdisciplinary studies are welcome when their central contribution advances clinical microbiological knowledge, methods, interpretation or practice. That contribution may arise from new data, existing datasets, evidence synthesis, modeling or systematic study of laboratory services.
- Infectious disease
- Studies that investigate microbial causes, diagnostic evidence, susceptibility or pathogen–host relationships in infectious disease. Treatment and outcome studies fit when they resolve a substantive microbiological question; general management comparisons with no such contribution are outside scope.
- Epidemiology
- Molecular and laboratory epidemiology, outbreak genomics, resistance surveillance and pathogen distribution, including analyses of existing laboratory records or public sequence datasets. Models and health-services studies fit when they address a defined microbiological surveillance or testing question.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Microbial identification, microscopy and plate-image interpretation, resistance prediction, genomic analysis and laboratory decision support. Evaluation must suit the intended use and development stage, address data leakage and bias, and justify reference labels and validation methods.Small exploratory datasets are not automatically out of scope; their limitations must constrain the claims. Generic algorithm demonstrations without a clinical microbiological contribution are outside scope.
- Diagnostic devices and platforms
- Biosensors, microfluidics, imaging and platforms developed for defined clinical microbiological tasks, including early analytical studies using reference organisms or simulated specimens. Clinical-performance claims require suitable clinical evaluation and justified comparators.Device engineering that uses microorganisms only as convenient targets, without advancing a clinical microbiological question, is outside scope.
- One Health and environmental sources
- Clinical veterinary microbiology and studies of animal, food or environmental reservoirs that address infection, pathogen transmission or clinically relevant resistance. Reservoir surveillance may investigate plausible pathways without demonstrating transmission to a particular patient.Authors should define the microbiological connection and distinguish potential reservoirs from proven sources of infection. General agricultural, industrial or environmental microbiology without that connection is outside scope.
Article types
Original research. Full-length investigations with methodology applicable to clinical microbiology practice, including diagnostic accuracy, method validation, surveillance and molecular epidemiology studies.
Review articles. Systematic or narrative syntheses of a diagnostic technique, a pathogen group or an infectious disease topic, written from the laboratory's side.
Case reports. Clinically instructive cases with educational value in microbiological diagnosis, interpretation or laboratory-guided care, including cases involving familiar organisms.
Methodology articles, including technical notes. Brief reports of a methodological advance, an assay validation or a procedural improvement.
Letters to the editor. Concise communications on published work or preliminary findings.
Perspectives. Commentary on an emerging issue or a future direction in clinical microbiology.
Case reports should offer a clear educational contribution to clinical microbiology, such as pathogen identification, diagnostic interpretation, susceptibility or laboratory-guided care. An unusual organism, technical difficulty or novel resistance mechanism is not mandatory. Reports should document the evidence and follow applicable consent and reporting requirements.
Outside scope
The following boundaries distinguish clinical microbiology from adjacent fields. Eligibility is determined by the research question and contribution, not by the department, technique or sample source.
Non-clinical microbiology. Environmental, agricultural, industrial or food studies with no defined connection to infection, clinical testing, pathogen transmission or clinically relevant resistance.
Basic microbial science. Physiology, genetics or systematics without an infection-related or clinical microbiological question. Fundamental pathogen research with that connection remains eligible.
Immunology and molecular biology. General host biology or vaccine immunology without a defined pathogen, host–pathogen interaction or microbiological diagnostic contribution.
Clinical medicine without microbiology. Treatment, management or drug-development studies without a substantive clinical microbiological contribution.
General epidemiology and public health. Population, policy, behavioral or health-services studies without a central contribution to microbiological testing, surveillance or laboratory practice. An infection-related setting alone is insufficient. Reuse of data does not itself make a study out of scope.
Computation and engineering without a clinical microbiological question. Bioinformatics method papers, machine-learning studies and device engineering that use microbial data or organisms as a convenient subject.
A manuscript in one of these areas may still be in scope if it carries genuine clinical microbiological work. The boundary is the contribution, not the department it came from.
Is my manuscript in scope
Use these questions to assess likely fit. They guide scope screening; they do not determine acceptance.
- Question 1MicroorganismDoes the work address microorganisms, microbial communities or laboratory methods relevant to human or animal infection, colonization or clinical care?
- Question 2EvidenceDoes the manuscript make a substantive clinical microbiological contribution through new data, reanalysis, evidence synthesis, methods, modeling or scholarly interpretation?
- Question 3ConsequenceIs the contribution to clinical laboratory microbiology or infection-related microbial biology central, with conclusions proportionate to the study design and evidence?
If the microbiological contribution is peripheral, the manuscript may fit another discipline better. Authors uncertain about scope can contact the editorial office with a title and abstract.
Instructions for authors · Editorial policies · What the journal has published
Related pages
- About the journal
- Editorial Board
- Current Issue
- Archive
- Instructions for Authors
- Editorial Policies
- Call for Papers
- Submit a manuscript
Within scope, and ready
Authors are welcome to submit throughout the year. Consult the instructions for authors for the relevant article format, reporting requirements and submission guidance.
International Journal of Clinical Microbiology (IJCM) · ISSN 2690-4721 · published open access by Open Access Pub under CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI prefix 10.14302. Editorial decisions are independent of any fee, service, membership or role.