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Contributions to ‘Beneficial Microbes’ must be original (research) and will be subject to peer review. 'Beneficial Microbes' uses a ‘single-blind’ review process. Refereeing of papers is conducted anonymously and the identity of the referees is not disclosed.
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From 2024, all Brill |Wageningen Academic journals are part of Brill’s Transformative Agreement with the Association of Dutch Universities (VSNU). Corresponding authors may publish research and review articles in Open Access in any of these journals. The Article Publication Charge (APC) for these journals will be waived. The article’s corresponding author must be from an eligible university. The regular submission and peer review processes apply.
Editor-in-Chief
Koen Venema, Beneficial Microbes Consultancy, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Section Editors
Isaac Cann (animal nutrition), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Animal Sciences, USA
Michael Chikindas (veterinary, medical and health), Rutgers University, Food science department, USA
Susana Delgado (food, nutrition and health), Dairy Research Institute-Spanish National Research Council, Spain
Goran Hauser (medical and health), Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine, Croatia
Fang He (medical and health), Sichuan University, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, China P.R.
Satoshi Koike (animal nutrition and animal health), Hokkaido University, Lab of Animal Function & Nutrition, Japan
Min-Tze Liong (medical and health), School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Laura Judith Marcos-Zambrano (statistics), IMDEA Food Institute, Spain
Mariya Petrova (food, nutrition and health), Microbiome Insights and Probiotics Consultancy, Bulgaria
Ger Rijkers (medical and health), Roosevelt Academy, Department of Sciences, Middelburg, the Netherlands
Devin Rose (food, nutrition and health), University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Food Science and Technology Department, USA
Muhammad Tanweer Khan (microbiota and disease), Metabogen, Sweden
Koen Venema (food, nutrition and health), Beneficial Microbes Consultancy, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Julio Villena (medical and health), CERELA-CONICET, Laboratory of Immunobiotechnology, Argentina

Editorial Board
M. Carina Audisio, INIQUI-CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Salta, Argentina
Carole Ayoub Moubareck, College of Natural and Health Sciences, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Alojz Bomba, PerBiotiX, Slovakia
Yuliya Borre, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Robert-Jan Brummer, Örebro University, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Sweden
James Dekker, Fonterra Co-operative Group, New Zealand
Leon Dicks, University of Stellenbosch, Department of Microbiology, South Africa
Ana Paula do Carmo, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Laboratório de Microbiologia Industrial, Brazil
George C. Fahey, Jr., University of Illinois, Department of Animal Sciences, USA
Melanie Gareau, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, USA
H. Rex Gaskins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute for Genomic Biology, USA
Audrey Gueniche, L’Oreal, Oral Route Research - Skin and Hair, France
Dirk Haller, Technische Universität München, Nutrition and Food Research Centre - Biofunctionality, Germany
Arland Hotchkiss, USDA-ARS, ERRC, USA
Sin-Hyeog Im, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Integrative Biosciences and iBiotechnology PostTech, Republic of Korea
David Keller, Keller Consulting Group, USA
Lee Yuan Kun, National University of Singapore, Department of Microbiology, Singapore
Irene Lenoir-Wijnkoop, Danone research, France
Ratna Sudha Madempudi, Unique Biotech Ltd., Centre for Research and Development, India
Takahiro Matsuki, Yakult Central Institute, Japan
Baltasar Mayo, Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias (CSIC), Spain
Jiro Nakayama, Kyushu University, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Japan
Peter Olesen, ActiFoods ApS, DenmarkV Dimitrios Papandreou, Zayed University, College of Natural and Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Maria Rescigno, Humanities Research Hospital, Italy
Mary Ellen Sanders, Dairy and Food Culture Technologies, USA
Jessica ter Haar, IPA, Canada
Barbara Williams, University of Queensland, Centre for Nutrition & Food Sciences (CNAFS), Australia
Jin-Zhong Xiao, Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd., Next Generation Science Institute, Japan
Zhongtang Yu, The Ohio State University, Food Innovation Center, USA

Founding Editors
Daniel Barug, Bastiaanse Communication, the Netherlands
Helena Bastiaanse, Bastiaanse Communication, the Netherlands
Agricola (USDA/ARS National Agricultural Library)
Biological Abstracts (Clarivate Analytics)
BIOSIS Previews (Clarivate Analytics)
CAB Abstracts® (CABI)
CAS: Chemical Abstracts Service (ACS)
Current Contents: Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences (Clarivate Analytics)
Embase (Elsevier)
Food Science and Technology abstracts (Wolters Kluwer)
Global Health (CABI)
MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine)
Nutrition and Food Sciences Database (CABI)
Science Citation Index Expanded (Clarivate Analytics)
SCOPUS (Elsevier)
VetMed Resource (CABI)
Web of Science - (Clarivate Analytics)
Google Scholar

The Beneficial Microbes agenda will provide an overview of the important international and national beneficial microbes conferences, seminars and meetings world wide, announcements of international projects, as well as beneficial microbes-related courses and events.

We try to keep the list updated, but please always check the website of the events for the most recent news.

2025  
3-5 November 11th Beneficial Microbes conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Beneficial Microbes is partner to the 10th Beneficial Microbes conference, Amsterdam, November 27-29, 2023.

Beneficial Microbes is media partner for the 11th Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum and 8th Probiotics & Prebiotics Congress: USA, San Diego, USA, 19-20 October, 2023

Beneficial Microbes

Journal Impact FactorTM
Beneficial Microbes has a Journal Impact FactorTM of 3 and the 5 year Journal Impact FactorTM is 5. Source: Journal Citation ReportsTM from Clarivate, 2024.

CiteScoreTM
The journal's CiteScoreTM is 9.0 CiteScoreTM 2022. Calculated by Scopus 2023.

Aims and scope Beneficial Microbes is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a specific area of focus: the promotion of the science of microbes beneficial to the health and wellbeing of man and animal. The journal contains original research papers and critical reviews in all areas dealing with beneficial microbes in both the small and large intestine, together with opinions, a calendar of forthcoming beneficial microbes-related events and book reviews. The journal takes a multidisciplinary approach and focuses on a broad spectrum of issues, including safety aspects of pro- & prebiotics, regulatory aspects, mechanisms of action, health benefits for the host, optimal production processes, screening methods, (meta)genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, host and bacterial physiology, application, and role in health and disease in man and animal. Beneficial Microbes is intended to serve the needs of researchers and professionals from the scientific community and industry, as well as those of policy makers and regulators.

The journal has the following major sections:
- Food, nutrition and health
- Animal nutrition
- Processing and application
- Regulatory and safety aspects
- Medical and health applications

In these sections, topics dealt with by Beneficial Microbes include:
- Worldwide safety and regulatory issues
- Human and animal nutrition and health effects
- Latest discoveries in mechanistic studies and screening methods to unravel mode of action
- Host physiology related to allergy, inflammation, obesity, etc.
- Trends in application of (meta)genomics, proteomics and metabolomics
- New developments in how processing optimizes pro- and prebiotics for application
- Bacterial physiology related to health benefits

Editorial statement Beneficial microbes are all around us: in our food and inside our body. We benefit from their presence every day. For instance, the beneficial effects of probiotics have already been recognized for a long time. History is replete with examples of evidence of probiotic-associated health effects. This started in modern science with Metchnikoff some 100 years ago, who ascribed the long life of Bulgarians to the consumption of yoghurt. Before that, in the Persian bible the longevity of Ibrahim (Abraham) is ascribed to the daily consumption of fermented milk. More recently, the activity and composition of the endogenous microbiota inside our gastro-intestinal tract has been studied. Yet, to appreciate the role of the endogenous microbiota in health and disease, this first required the development of molecular DNA methods to be able to study its molecular ecology. This has led to the recognition of the importance of (members of the) endogenous microbiota in various diseases and disorders, such as colon cancer, inflammatory diseases, and irritable bowel syndrome. Even non-gut related disorders, such as obesity, atopic eczema and even autism have been correlated with the composition and activity of the microbiota. This microbiota is crucial in the development of the immune system, and its establishment from birth onwards has been considered important for health and disease later in life.

Multidisciplinary in-depth research, targeted at developing knowledge about many aspects of beneficial microbes, has resulted in tens of thousands of publications, several relevant books and dedicated workshops and conferences. It remains to be seen whether all diseases and disorders can be prevented or treated with beneficial microbes, being either probiotics, or, through the use of dietary components such as prebiotics, by modulation of the activity and composition of the endogenous microbiota. Nevertheless, it is our expectation that, through the development of novel tools and technologies, such as the use of stable isotopes in this research area, the mechanism of action of pro- and prebiotics and the benefits of beneficial microbes will be unravelled in the near future.

The creation of Beneficial Microbes witnesses the continuous and intensive interest in the scientific community for this multi-faceted subject area, and of the many activities that take place, e.g. those undertaken by international organisations and within thematic interlaboratory research and networking projects. The journal aims to bring together those active in various disciplines and to offer a platform for the publication of scientific work on beneficial microbes, and for the discussion and debate of its contents. It has the ambition of strengthening the networks of experts in the area and of contributing significantly to the recognition of these microbial friends for human and animal health. Beneficial Microbes has the ambition to be the most up-to-date international journal for those who need to be informed of the latest and most important developments in the field.

Beneficial Microbes is a Plan S compliant Transformative Journal. Plan S Transformative Journals
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