ISME Communications is the latest launch from the International Society for Microbial Ecology. ISME Communications covers the diverse and integrated areas of microbial ecology spanning the breadth of microbial life. The journal encourages contributions that offer substantial advances in the study of microbial ecosystems, communities, and interactions of microorganisms in the environment. Focus is on innovative studies that report on new methodologies in microbial ecology, microbiome analyses in a variety of habitats, holobiont interactions, climate change microbiology, biogeography & diversity surveys, time-series analyses and mechanistic studies on the functional importance of microorganisms in specific environments. As a fully open access partner to The ISME Journal, publications in ISME Communications will emphasize research quality and diversity, encouraging both discovery-based and methods-oriented publications. The broad scope of ISME Communications will help encompass the full breadth of microbial ecology research, exploring topics that include: Climate change microbiology Community assembly Engineered and synthetic microbial communities Host-microbiome interactions Methodological and computational advances Microbiomes of engineered environments Modelling and ecological theory Novel microorganisms and metabolic functions Spatial and temporal dynamics .