Journals listed in Web of Science and JCR receive many submissions and desk reject a large share. A section-by-section audit by a PhD reviewer in your area shows what to fix first.
Manuscript Auditing →01Impact factor
Impact factor of mBio (2026)
The impact factor shown here is the 2-year mean citedness: citations received in a year by the papers mBio published in the two previous years, divided by the number of those papers. That is the same formula as the Journal Impact Factor, applied to the open citation data of OpenAlex. The journal is listed in JCR 2024, so it also has an official Journal Impact Factor published by Clarivate, which can differ because it counts citations from Web of Science journals only.
Rank in its subject categories
- Microbiologyrank 27 of 171 journals
Ranks here compare journals of the same Web of Science category in our data by 2-year citedness; they are not the official JCR rank.
Quartile of mBio
A journal's quartile (Q1 to Q4) is its position within a subject category: Q1 is the top quarter. The official quartiles are published by Clarivate in Journal Citation Reports (by Journal Impact Factor, in Web of Science categories) and by Scimago as the SJR quartile (in Scopus categories). mBio is listed in JCR 2024, so its JCR quartile is in Journal Citation Reports. It is indexed in Scopus, so Scimago shows its SJR quartile. ScholarsColab does not show a quartile until it can show the official one; the impact factor and rank above are calculated from open data.
Citations and papers per year
Open access (listed in DOAJ); article processing charge listed at about US$3,900.
02Review time
Review time of mBio
Each paper took a different time. The green box holds the middle half of the papers and the dark line is the median; the whiskers reach the fastest 10% and the slowest 10%. Plan with the whole spread, not only the median.
Half of the research articles mBio published between Aug 2026 and Oct 2026 were accepted within 27 days of submission, and the middle half took between 14 and 75 days. This time includes peer review and any revision rounds. Papers that were rejected are not counted, because only published papers carry these dates.
In Microbiology, mBio ranks 1 of 65 journals by review time (1 = fastest). See the fastest-review journals in Microbiology →
03Fee waivers
APC waivers and discounts for mBio
mBio follows the waiver policy of its publisher, American Society for Microbiology: automatic full waiver for Research4Life Group A and a partial waiver for Group B. Only the corresponding author's affiliation counts. Co-authors from other countries do not change the waiver.
Authors affiliated in 82 countries qualify for a full waiver. See the countries →
Waivers apply to fully open access journals. If mBio is a hybrid journal, you can publish without any fee through the subscription route.
Checking the waiver rules for your country…
Retractions and research integrity at mBio
Retractions per year
Most common reasons (a retraction can have several):
mBio has 4 retracted papers in the Retraction Watch database, the latest in Feb 2025. A retraction count is not a verdict on a journal: large journals publish more and journals that investigate actively retract more. The trend and the reasons tell you more than the number.
Who funds research published in mBio
Funders named most often
A high share of funded papers usually means the journal is a common choice for grant-supported work in its field. If your funder pays article processing charges, or your country qualifies for a waiver, check what applies to your author team with the free APC waiver checker.
Submitting to mBio? See your rejection risk first.
Seven questions our reviewers ask in every audit, plus your abstract and the fit with this journal. Free, no sign-up, about 2 minutes.
04Indexing
Indexing of mBio
- ISSN
- 2150-7511
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Scopus source type
- Journal
- Web of Science categories
- Microbiology
From the indexing lists used on ScholarsColab, updated 1 March 2026. Indexing can change: confirm on the Web of Science Master Journal List or the Scopus source list before submitting. Official Journal Impact Factors and JCR quartiles are published by Clarivate; the impact factor and quartile on this page are calculated from OpenAlex open data (see how the impact factor works).
05What it publishes
What mBio publishes: real papers
Words that appear most often in the titles of the papers published here that we track. Choose one to see those papers:
06Published papers
Papers published in mBio
Papers from the publication records ScholarsColab tracks, with their year and citations. Author names are not shown.
- The dual activity responsible for the elongation and branching of β-(1, 3)-glucan in the fungal cell wall2017125 citations
- Wnt-β-Catenin Signaling in Human Dendritic Cells Mediates Regulatory T-Cell Responses to Fungi via the PD-L1 Pathway202138 citations
- Functional Coupling between the Unfolded Protein Response and Endoplasmic Reticulum/Golgi Ca2+-ATPases Promotes Stress Tolerance, Cell Wall …202028 citations
- Aspergillus fumigatus acetate utilization impacts virulence traits and pathogenicity202126 citations
- Cryptococcus neoformans infections: aspartyl protease potential to improve outcome in susceptible hosts20247 citations
- Evolutionary Tracking of SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Variants Highlights an Intricate Balance of Stabilizing and Destabilizing Mutations20210 citations
- A distinct microbiome signature in posttreatment Lyme disease patients. mBio 11: e02310-2020200 citations
- One Health genomic surveillance of Escherichia coli demonstrates distinct lineages and mobile genetic elements in isolates from humans versus livestock …20190 citations
- Changes in aphid host plant diet influence the small-RNA expression profiles of its obligate nutritional symbiont, Buchnera. mBio 10: e01733-1920190 citations
- Microbial functional gene diversity predicts groundwater contamination and ecosystem functioning. mBio 9: e02435-1720180 citations
07Reviewer comments
Reviewer comments and rejection reasons for mBio
No reviewer or editor comments have been shared for this journal yet. Did you submit here? Help other researchers by sharing the comments you received, anonymously.
Share reviewer comments for this journal →Across the reviewer comments researchers have shared with us, the points raised most often are figures, tables and equations (21%), literature and references (12%) and novelty and contribution (10%). Before you submit to mBio, a Manuscript Audit by a PhD reviewer in your area checks your paper against exactly these points.
Audit my paper before I submit →Not sure yet? Check if your paper is ready for this journal: free, no AI, under 5 secondsPreparing to submit here? Make sure reviewers don't stop at the issues they raise most often. A PhD reviewer in your area can audit your manuscript section by section, and we can convert it into the journal's LaTeX template.
08Similar journals
Journals similar to mBio
Journals that publish the closest work to the papers above, from the indexing lists:
- PLoS ONESCIEScopusJCR 202465 similar papers
- PLoS PathogensSCIEScopusJCR 202414 similar papers
- PLoS GeneticsSCIEScopusJCR 20245 similar papers
- PeerJSCIEScopusJCR 202423 similar papers
- PLoS BiologySCIEScopusJCR 20248 similar papers
- Frontiers in Bioengineering and BiotechnologySCIEScopusJCR 20243 similar papers
09Journal Finder
Find the right journal for your paper
Is mBio right for your paper? Compare journals
Paste your title, keywords or abstract. See the journals that published the closest papers, with indexing, impact factor, review time and APC.
No AI or language model is used. Your words are matched against the titles of 156,503 real published journal papers, by our mentors and by other researchers (shown without names); journals are ranked by how many closely matching papers they published. Indexing comes from the SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI, Scopus and JCR 2024 lists, matched by journal name; the impact factor is calculated from OpenAlex open data, not the official Clarivate value, and no quartile is shown until the official JCR or SJR quartile can be; review time comes from the dates publishers deposit in Crossref (not every publisher deposits them). Always check a journal’s scope and current indexing before submitting.
10Questions
Frequently asked questions
How long is the review time of mBio?
Based on 180 research articles mBio published from Aug 2026 to Oct 2026, the median time from submission to acceptance was 27 days, and half of them were accepted between 14 and 75 days. After acceptance, papers appeared online after a median of 24 days. Source: received and accepted dates deposited by the publisher in Crossref, retrieved October 2026. Individual papers can take longer, especially with major revisions.
What is the impact factor of mBio?
Based on OpenAlex citation data (October 2026), the 2-year impact factor of mBio is 6.29: papers it published in the two previous years were cited 6.29 times on average in a year. The journal is listed in JCR 2024, so Clarivate also publishes an official Journal Impact Factor, which can differ.
What is the h-index of mBio?
The h-index of mBio is 228 (OpenAlex, October 2026): 228 of its papers have each been cited at least 228 times. Its i10-index is 6,381.
What is the APC of mBio?
OpenAlex lists an article processing charge (APC) of about US$3,900 for mBio, an open access journal (data from October 2026). APCs change and can differ by article type, country or discounts, so confirm the current charge on the journal’s website before submitting.
What is the quartile of mBio?
A journal's quartile (Q1 to Q4) is its position within a subject category: Q1 is the top quarter. The official quartiles are published by Clarivate in Journal Citation Reports (by Journal Impact Factor, in Web of Science categories) and by Scimago as the SJR quartile (in Scopus categories). mBio is listed in JCR 2024, so its JCR quartile is in Journal Citation Reports. It is indexed in Scopus, so Scimago shows its SJR quartile. ScholarsColab does not show a quartile until it can show the official one; the impact factor and rank above are calculated from open data.
Is mBio indexed in Scopus?
Yes. mBio appears in the Scopus list, according to the indexing lists used on ScholarsColab (updated 1 March 2026). Always confirm the current status on the official list before submitting.
Is mBio an SCIE journal?
Yes. mBio is listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), according to the indexing lists used on ScholarsColab (updated 1 March 2026). Always confirm the current status on the official list before submitting.
Is mBio in Journal Citation Reports (JCR)?
Yes. mBio is listed in JCR 2024, so it has a Journal Impact Factor. For the current impact factor and quartile, check Journal Citation Reports.
What topics does mBio publish?
The papers published in mBio that we track most often mention cell, mbio, wall, human, response, functional. Check the journal’s aims and scope for its full coverage.
How many papers published in mBio does ScholarsColab track?
We track 10 papers published in mBio between 2017 and 2024, cited 224 times in total, with a median of 3.5 citations per paper.
Does mBio offer an APC waiver?
mBio follows the policy of American Society for Microbiology: automatic full waiver for Research4Life Group A and a partial waiver for Group B. Only the corresponding author's affiliation counts. Co-authors from other countries do not change the waiver. Rules verified 27 October 2026; confirm on the publisher's page.
Has mBio retracted papers?
Yes. The Retraction Watch database lists 4 retracted papers in mBio, 3 of them in the last 10 years; the most common reasons are unreliable results and/or conclusions, falsification/fabrication of data, misconduct - official investigation(s) and/or finding(s). A retraction count alone is not a verdict on a journal; look at the trend and the reasons. Data updated October 2026.
Who funds research published in mBio?
84% of 200 recent research articles in mBio name a funder in Crossref; the funders named most often are National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Want a PhD expert to choose the journal with you?
Our Journal Selection & Submission service shortlists up to 5 journals that match your manuscript, indexing requirement and target quartile, and handles the submission. If your paper was rejected before, a Manuscript Audit shows what to fix first.
Not sure yet? Check your manuscript for this journal, free · How the process works
Popular journals
- The Lancet
- Nature
- Science
- PLoS ONE
- Scientific Reports
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Science of the Total Environment
- Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Nucleic Acids Research
- Energies
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Tetrahedron Letters
- Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
- BMJ
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Physical Review C
- Annals of Oncology
- Macromolecules
- Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
- IEEE Transactions on Magnetics
Browse all journals: indexing, impact factor and reviewer comments →