Skip to main content.

Journal Menu

Sales and Services

Related Websites

Important changes to manuscript submission - read more below

Molecular Ecology

Edited by:
Loren Rieseberg

ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2007: 47/263 (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology); 6/116 (Ecology); 5/35 (Evolutionary Biology)
Impact Factor: 5.169

Molecular Ecology publishes papers that utilize molecular genetic techniques to address consequential questions in ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation. Studies may employ neutral markers for inference about ecological and evolutionary processes or examine ecologically important genes and their products directly. We discourage papers that are primarily descriptive and are relevant only to the taxon being studied. Papers reporting on molecular marker development, molecular diagnostics, barcoding, or DNA taxonomy, or technical methods should be re-directed to our sister journal, Molecular Ecology Resources. Research areas of interest to Molecular Ecology include:

population structure and phylogeography
reproductive strategies
relatedness and kin selection
sex allocation
population genetic theory
analytical methods development
conservation genetics
speciation genetics
microbial biodiversity
evolutionary dynamics of QTLs
ecological interactions
molecular adaptation and environmental genomics
impact of genetically modified organisms

Molecular Ecology concentrates on primary research articles but operates a flexible policy regarding other submissions, including Reviews, Opinion Articles and Commentaries. Technical, Primer, and Computer Notes will now be published by the sister Journal Molecular Ecology Resources.

TopNews and Announcements

Changes to manuscript submission system for Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources
After many years of excellent service, Prof. Harry Smith is retiring as Managing Editor of Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources, and we welcome Dr. Tim Vines to the role. The editorial office has moved to the University of British Columbia where Tim is currently based. With this handover, the submission system for Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources has moved to Manuscript Central.

This change will require all manuscripts to be submitted through Manuscript Central for both journals.

New address for all manuscript submissions to Molecular Ecology: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mec
Contact email for Tim Vines: managing.editor@molecol.com

We are delighted that Harry will continue his involvement with the journals both as Founding Editor of both journals (in collaboration with Wiley-Blackwell) and as a Subject Editor.

International Conference on Biotic Plant Interactions
The winners of the recent Molecular Ecology-sponsored Poster Prize at the ICBPI meeting at the University of Queensland, Australia, in March 2008 were:
1st Prize Antonio Leon-Reyes
Runners-up Yu Hsiang Lin, Piotr Trebicki, Satomi Hayashi & Kefan Peng

Molecular Ecology podcasts - hot out of the studio!
The latest podcast brings together two top scientists, Louis Bernatchez (Université Laval) and Tom Smith (UCLA), to discuss the Molecular Ecology Special Issue 17:1 (Jan 2007), "Evolutionary change in human-altered environments". This Special Issue comes as a result of papers given at a meeting organised by them in at UCLA in 2007 which brought together top scientists and policy-makers from around the globe.
Click here to go to the podcast page | Click here to go to the free Special Issue

Molecular Ecology Prize
The 2007 Molecular Ecology Prize was awarded to Pierre Taberlet, at the Systematics Association Meeting in Edinburgh, for his outstanding contribution to the field. Click here for background on the prize and previous winners.

Online content now available back to Volume 1
All back issues of Molecular Ecology are available online. Click here to browse contents and abstracts. For further information on how to access these articles please visit our Librarian Site.

Papers on molecular diagnostics, DNA taxonomy, and barcoding moving to Molecular Ecology Resources
Molecular Ecology Resources has recently expanded to include:
1. Technical reviews
2. Full-length technical papers
3. A new section on molecular diagnostics

The first two initiatives are intended to provide an outlet for comprehensive technical papers and reviews. The third initiative is intended to recognize the tremendous promise molecular diagnostics, DNA taxonomy, and barcoding hold for ecological studies and to provide a suitable venue for these kinds of papers. As a consequence, Molecular Ecology will no longer be publishing technical articles and reviews, barcoding papers, or papers that report on methods for individual and species identification. These kinds of papers should now be directed to Molecular Ecology Resources.

Free Online Access in the Developing World
Free online access to this journal is available within institutions in the developing world through the AGORA Initiative with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the OARE Initiative (Online Access to Research in the Environment) with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Articles Published Online Ahead of Print
Articles that have been fully copy-edited and peer-reviewed are published online through our Early View feature before the print edition of this journal is published.

Online Open
Authors of articles in this journal can now choose to make their articles open access and available free for all readers through the payment of an author fee. Read more.

TopHighlights

Special Issue: Evolutionary change in human-altered environments
Issue 17:1 of Molecular Ecology (January 2008). Global warming and other human-caused ecological changes are outpacing the ability of species to adapt, resulting in greater threats of disease, reduced diversity in plant and animal communities, and an overall loss of natural heritage, according to research presented at a UCLA summit and published in Molecular Ecology. Click here to read the free Special Issue

Evolution and Speciation in the Hawaiian Silverword
Read the special section on the Hawaiian Silverword in Issue 16:19 of Molecular Ecology for free.
Click here to read now.

Molecular Ecology in top 6 most cited articles for Environment/Ecology
The two articles below from Molecular Ecology currently feature in the top 6 most-cited articles in ISI's ranking for Environment/Ecology, with over 750 citations each. Click on the links below to read these articles for free:
TCS: a computer program to estimate gene genealogies
Clement M; Posada D; Crandall KA
•982 citations•

Special Issue: Ecological and evolutionary genomics of populations in nature
Issue 15:5 of Molecular Ecology (April 2006) is a special issue on the ecological and evolutionary genomics of populations in nature. Read this issue for free in Blackwell Synergy.

Highly Cited
The following article from issue 13:4 (April 2004) has been cited 202 times since publication. Read this article for free in Blackwell Synergy.
Statistical phylogeography: methods of evaluating and minimizing inference errors
Alan R Templeton

Top Articles
Click on the links below to read the most read articles from Molecular Ecology in 2006:
What is a population? An empirical evaluation of some genetic methods for identifying the number of gene pools and their degree of connectivity
ROBIN S. WAPLES & OSCAR GAGGIOTTI
Microbial ecology in the age of genomics and metagenomics: concepts, tools, and recent advances
JIANPING XU
Strategies for microsatellite isolation: a review
L. Zane, L. Bargelloni and T. Patarnello

Click here for the top read articles to date
Click here for the top cited articles to date

Review Articles - Free
All review articles published in Molecular Ecology are made free in Blackwell Synergy.

Other relevant journals
Evolutionary Applications
British Ecological Society Publications
Molecular Biology and Evolution

View content online

View sample issue

Submit an article