About the Journal

Soil Organisms is a diamond open access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal, presenting high-level novel research results, review papers, and a number of other formats in English covering the complete field of soil biology, including taxonomy and systematics, soil ecology (including interactions), biogeography, morphology, conservation, evolution and ecosystem functions. Unique among soil-biological journals, Soil Organisms especially considers the organismic aspects of soil biology. 

Double blind peer-review process
Soil Organisms practices a double-blind peer-review process, in which both the reviewers’ and the author's’ identities are kept confidential during the review process. It is implemented to ensure impartial and unbiased evaluation of research papers.

Ownership and terms of use
Soil Organisms is owned and published by the Senckenberg Society for Natural History Research (Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung), Frankfurt am Main, Germany with the Editorial office at Senckenberg Museum of Natural History (Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde) in Görlitz. The Senckenberg Society for Natural History Research (Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, SGN) is a member of the Leibniz Association (Leibniz-Gemeinschaft) and is therefore attuned to the idea of Open Access as explained in the Berlin Declaration (Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Scientific Knowledge, Berliner Erklärung über den offenen Zugang zu wissenschaftlichem Wissen).
Open Access is understood to mean the charge-exempt public access to scientific results via the internet. The users should be able to read, copy, print, search within, and reference the full text without limitation and to use it in any conceivable lawful manner without financial, legal or technical hindrance.
This applies also to the SGN, which publishes various scientific series. Some scientific journals are made available to the public via Open Access in addition to printed copies.

Copyright and Licensing
Articles published from Vol. 96 No. 3 (2024) onwards are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Articles published from Vol. 80 No. 1 through Vol. 96 No. 2 are available under the previous terms, allowing non-commercial, private, and scientific use.
Authors retain copyright of all articles published in Soil Organisms. Authors publishing their articles Open Access will sign an Open Access license to publish agreement (LTP), and grant non-exclusive rights to the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany where a CC BY license is selected.

Publisher Information
Soil Organisms is published by the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Editorial office: Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz.
Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
Senckenberganlage 25
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Periodicity, subscription and fees

A print version of Soil Organisms is published in three volumes per year. 

Soil Organisms’ publisher Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung as a member of Leibnitz Association is committed to the general Open Science standards which may be found here:
https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Bilder_und_Downloads/Forschung/Open_Science/G6_statement_on_Open_Science.pdf
https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Bilder_und_Downloads/Forschung/Open_Science/Open_Access_Policy_web.pdf
In line with this, we offer online open access publishing of all papers free of charge. Also, there are no any publication fees associated.

The printed journal is available for sale (Order Form). To buy the print version of Soil Organisms, please fill out the order form and send it to our library either per e-mail or by post (printed out and signed). For information concerning purchase and payment, please contact the responsible librarian in Görlitz at library-gr@senckenberg.de
or
Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz
 - Library -
Am Museum 1
02826 Görlitz
Germany

Terms of sale

Within Germany/Foreign countries: per invoice
Shipment takes place via surface mail. Extra costs will be charged for airmail.

Archiving Statement

Soil Organisms (eISSN 2509‑9523; Print‑ISSN 1864‑6417)
All articles are archived for the long term: digitally via the German National Library (DNB) and the LOCKSS system (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) – https://soil-organisms.org/SO/gateway/lockss.
The parallel print edition supports sustainable archiving in libraries and the exchange of publications with currently over 224 partner institutions in 36 countries.

Funding Statement

Soil Organisms publication costs of the online version is are covered by the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung. None of the members of the Editorial Team get remuneration for their work. This enables the journal to offer online open-access publishing at no fee. Publishing the printed version of the journal is covered by the fee paid by the purchasers.

Neither Soil Organisms, nor its publisher receives any revenues from publishing advertisement or performing direct marketing activities. The journal remains strictly adherent to the principles of non-commercial open science as stated in the Open Access and Subscription subsection of this page.