About

Aims and scope

Ocean Ecosystems publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed open access research in biological oceanography and ocean ecology, advancing understanding of the complex systemic interplay between sea organisms and geology, chemistry and physics of oceans.

The importance of oceans as a pillar of Earth’s ecosystem cannot be emphasised enough. This journal aims to support and cultivate progress towards a global commitment to sea sustainability, by developing scientific knowledge in the factors influencing life in the oceans, including climate change, pollution, ocean acidification, and other adverse impacts, and the biology of oceans affecting the oceanographic system, in terms of geochemistry, sediments, and the atmosphere, among the others.

Ocean Ecosystems champions innovative, diverse, and outstanding research in oceanography, able to bring together the biological and physical sciences and address multifaceted global challenges, ranging from climate change to overfishing and marine pollution. To achieve this, the journal accepts submissions of high-quality novel research, analytical reports, innovative and groundbreaking methodologies that fill important gaps in continually emerging knowledge.

Particular areas of interest within the journal include species distribution; nutrient cycling; biotechnology; marine microbes; and how human behaviour impacts marine life. The journal also welcomes novel research on marine and ocean policy pertaining to organisms and resources, especially in relation to conservation. Unique areas of the field such as polar science and extreme oceanic environments are of interest for the distinct challenges and exciting opportunities faced in unusual habitats where most life cannot survive.

Open access

All articles published by Ocean Ecosystems are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in Ocean Ecosystems you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article according to the licence terms.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, BMC can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article processing charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in Ocean Ecosystems are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.

The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £1490.00/$1990.00/€1690.00

Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Open access funding

Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.

Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Ocean Ecosystems should adhere to BMC's editorial policies.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies .

Benefits of publishing with BMC

High visibility

Ocean Ecosystems's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience.

Speed of publication

Ocean Ecosystems offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF.

Flexibility

Online publication in Ocean Ecosystems gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Ocean Ecosystems are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be highlighted on Ocean Ecosystems’s pages and on the BMC homepage.

In addition, articles published in Ocean Ecosystems may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Ocean Ecosystems. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BMC is available here.

Copyright

As an author of an article published in Ocean Ecosystems you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work. For further information, see our guide to licensing, copyright and author rights.

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BMC, please click here.