History

Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) was founded in 1979 by Professor Otto Kinne. Its original concept was based on 'Marine Ecology' - the first comprehensive, integrated treatise on life in oceans and coastal waters - conceived, contributed to, organized and edited by Otto Kinne, and published by John Wiley & Sons.

MEPS: an influential journal in its field

According to the Journal Citation Reports 2024 release, MEPS features an impact factor (IF) of 2.2 from 34544 total cites (5-year IF = 2.5), Immediacy Index = 0.5, Eigenfactor = 0.01040, JCI = 0.79.

All manuscripts (except Comments and Reply Comments) must pass through a rigorous review process involving at least 3 referees. For details consult Mar Ecol Prog Ser 279:1.

Aim

MEPS serves as a worldwide forum for all aspects of marine ecology, fundamental and applied. The journal covers: microbiology, botany, zoology, ecosystem research, biological oceanography, ecological aspects of fisheries and aquaculture, pollution, environmental protection, conservation, resource management.

Ecological research has become of paramount importance for the future of humanity. The information presented here should, therefore, encourage critical application of ecological knowledge for the benefit of mankind and, in fact, of life on earth. Marine Ecology Progress Series strives for

• complete coverage of the field of marine ecology
• the highest possible quality of scientific contributions
• quick publication
• a high technical standard of presentation

Scope

MEPS is international and interdisciplinary. It presents rigorously refereed and carefully selected Research Articles, Reviews and Notes, as well as Comments/Reply Comments (for details see MEPS 228:1), Theme Sections and Opinion Pieces. For details consult the Guidelines for Authors. Papers may be concerned with:

• Environmental factors:
  

  Tolerances and responses of marine organisms (microorganisms, autotrophic plants and animals) to variations in abiotic and biotic components of their environment; radioecology.

• Physiological-ecological mechanisms:
  

  Auto- and heterotrophy; thermo-, ion-, osmo- and volume-regulation; stress resistance; population genetics and ecological genome research; orientation in space and time; migrations; behavior; chemical ecology.

• Molecular marine ecology:
  

  Molecular basis of ecological processes.

• Cultivation/aquaculture:
  

  Maintenance and rearing of, as well as experimentation with, marine organisms under environmental and nutritional conditions which are, to a considerable degree, controlled; analysis of the physiological and ecological potential of individuals, populations and species; determination of nutritional requirements; ecological aspects of aquaculture; water-quality management; culture technology.

• Dynamics:
  

  Marine ecosystems; flow patterns of energy and matter as these pass through organisms, populations and ecosystems; biodiversity; trophic interrelations; production, transformation and decomposition of organic matter; plankton ecology; benthos ecology; estuarine and coastal ecology; wadden-sea ecology; coral-reef ecology; deep-sea ecology; open-ocean ecology; polar ecology; theoretical ecology; ecological methodology and technology; ecological modelling and computer simulation.

• Ocean use management:
  

  Anthropogenic impacts: their role as modifiers and deformers of living systems, their biological consequences and their management and control; inventory of living resources in coastal areas, estuaries and open oceans; ecological aspects of fisheries; pollution of marine areas and organisms; protection of life in the seas; management of populations, species and ecosystems; management of coastal zones and sea areas; biotechnology.

• Eco-ethics:
  

  Marine ecological research relevant to human thought and conduct oriented to what is right or wrong, beneficial or destructive for the total system 'Homo sapiens plus nature'.

Publication fees

The only publication fee charged by the journal is the Article Processing Charge (APC) for Open Access publication. There are no other article submission or publication fees such as page charges or colour charges.

Authors, Reviewers and Editors must disclose relationships (e.g. financial, economic, institutional) that may affect the integrity of the scientific process. Please refer to our Conflict of Interest Policy for details.

Open Access articles attract far more attention than non-Open Access articles—in some cases more than 10-fold. Open Access articles are immediately available to a much broader audience, including the general public. This potentially results in a wider and greater impact and faster citation growth.

Authors may select Open Access publication for their article at the time of manuscript acceptance. Article Processing Charges (APCs) for publication apply. Open Access articles are published under the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) Licence. Copyright remains with the original copyright owners, and copying and re-use is almost unrestricted.

If Open Access is not selected, articles will be published with Subscriber Access (no publication fee), under which access is limited to the journal subscribers and copying and reuse of the article are restricted by normal copyright law. Fuller information on Open Access and policies on author self-archiving (‘Green’ Open Access) of Subscriber Access articles is found on the main Open Access page.

For Open Access, the APC is based on article type and date of article submission, so the final APC price is already fixed for APC funding applications necessary prior to article submission.

The Article Processing Charges (APCs) are:

Articles submitted on or after 1 November 2022

• €2500 for Research or Review articles
• €1250 for Notes
• € 650 for Opinion Pieces or Comments

Tax information

For purchases in the European Union, the VAT number of the paying institution must be provided, otherwise VAT will be added at the standard rate for the country of the purchaser. For Germany, VAT at 7% will always be added.

Fee discounts

Feature Articles are published with Open Access at no cost to the authors.

Authors of studies originating from countries where limited funds are available for APCs can request to have the APC reduced. Applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and will require the provision to Inter-Research of specific funding and other resourcing information related to the study. In general a study must have been funded to at least 50% by a country eligible for the Research4Life program or classified by the World Bank as low or lower-middle income. A complete waiver of the APC is not available for journals where there is the option of publishing with Subscriber Access at no charge. Please apply to Feewaiver before submitting your manuscript.

Creative Commons Labelling

Only articles clearly marked with "CC BY" in the top right corner of the front page are published with the Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. The CC-BY option was not available for Inter-Research journals before 1 April 2013. Articles marked "Open Access" or "Free Access" but not marked "CC BY" are made freely accessible at the time of publication but are subject to standard copyright law regarding reproduction and distribution.