The journal is identical in scope to Environmental Microbiology, shares the same editorial team and submission site, and will apply the same high level acceptance criteria. The two journals will be mutually supportive and evolve side-by-side.

Environmental Microbiology Reports provides a high profile vehicle for publication of the most innovative, original and rigorous research in the field. The scope of the Journal encompasses the diversity of current research on microbial processes in the environment, microbial communities, interactions and evolution and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

the structure, activities and communal behaviour of microbial communities
microbial community genetics and evolutionary processes
microbial symbioses, microbial interactions and interactions with plants, animals and abiotic factors
microbes in the tree of life, microbial diversification and evolution
population biology and clonal structure
microbial metabolic and structural diversity
microbial physiology, growth and survival
microbes and surfaces, adhesion and biofouling
responses to environmental signals and stress factors
modelling and theory development
pollution microbiology
extremophiles and life in extreme and unusual little-explored habitats
element cycles and biogeochemical processes, primary and secondary production
microbes in a changing world, microbially-influenced global changes
evolution and diversity of archaeal and bacterial viruses
new technological developments in microbial ecology and evolution, in particular for the study of activities of microbial communities, non-culturable microorganisms and emerging pathogens.