The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the leading society publisher in the microbial sciences. Founded in 1899 as the Society of American Bacteriologists and renamed in 1960, ASM today has roughly 30,000 members and publishes 17 peer-reviewed journals from its Washington DC headquarters - from century-old field standards like the Journal of Bacteriology (1916) to the fully open-access m-family (mBio, mSphere, mSystems) and the broad-scope Microbiology Spectrum.

Two recent changes matter for authors. First, in 2025 ASM adopted a Subscribe to Open (S2O) model for its six primary research journals; the society met its sustainability target for 2026, so those six journals are publishing all 2026 content open access with no APC for authors. Second, in March 2025 ASM launched a new submission experience on ChronosHub, which now fronts submissions for the S2O research journals while other titles continue on the eJournalPress (eJP) peer-review system. This guide covers how to pick the right ASM journal, what open access costs, how peer review works, and how to submit.

17 peer-reviewed journals, all in the microbial sciences:

• Six S2O primary research journals - Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Infection and Immunity, Journal of Bacteriology, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and Journal of Virology. These are the historic core of the portfolio, several publishing continuously for over a century.
• Five fully open-access titles - mBio (ASM's flagship), mSphere, mSystems, Microbiology Spectrum, and Microbiology Resource Announcements.
• Review journals - Clinical Microbiology Reviews and Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, among the highest-cited venues in the field.
• Newer and specialty titles - ASM Case Reports, ASM Animal Microbiology, ASM Food Microbiology (all launched around 2025), and the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.

ASM offers three OA routes: gold OA in the five fully-OA journals, Subscribe to Open across the six primary research journals, and green self-archiving with embargo. Articles are published under CC BY by default, and waivers are available for authors in low- and middle-income countries. APCs below are 2026 rates in USD; ASM revises fees annually, so check the current price list before submitting.

Under S2O, if enough institutions subscribe each year, that year's content is published open access for everyone - no APC regardless of the author's institution. ASM met the target for both 2025 and 2026. If a future year's target were missed, those journals would revert to subscription access for that year.

• Model: single-anonymized peer review, with academic editors who are active microbiologists.
• Review journals: Clinical Microbiology Reviews and Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews publish mostly invited content.
• Turnaround: varies by title; ASM publishes per-journal decision-time statistics on each journal's homepage, so check there rather than relying on portfolio-wide averages.

1. Pick the journal. Match your paper's scope and significance using the table above.
2. Read the journal's submission and review page. Each ASM title has its own scope statement and article types.
3. Format your manuscript. ASM uses its own citation style; SciSpace hosts ASM templates with the correct structure and reference format.
4. Submit via ChronosHub or eJournalPress. The S2O research journals (AAC, AEM, JB, JCM, JVI, IAI, plus the new ASM specialty titles) take submissions through the ChronosHub portal launched in March 2025; other titles use the eJournalPress (eJP) system. Revisions are handled in eJP.
5. Include your ORCID. ASM requires an ORCID for corresponding authors at submission.

ASM is a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM, and follows COPE guidelines on corrections and retractions. Editorial policies - covering authorship, data availability, image integrity, and preprint posting - are published centrally at journals.asm.org/publishing-policies and apply portfolio-wide.