A leading journal in its field, DAO is indexed by ISI under the following subject area categories: Fisheries, Marine & Freshwater Biology, and Veterinary Science. According to the Journal Citation Reports 2025 release, DAO features an impact factor (IF) of 1.2 from 5643 total cites (5-year IF = 1.6), Immediacy Index = 0.3, Eigenfactor = 0.0014, JCI = 0.51. DAO is also included in the PubMed database, and all articles can be accessed via direct links from PubMed entries.

Editors, Review Editors and a large number of Anonymous Referees - all internationally acknowledged experts - assure constructive, fair and prompt peer reviews, and a critical selection of high-quality papers.

Aim

DAO serves as a worldwide forum for scientific communications on all aspects of diseases in aquatic organisms. Diseases affect all facets of life - at the cell, tissue, organ, individual, population and ecosystem level. Studies of disease phenomena in the wide array of aquatic life forms contribute significantly to the analysis, comprehension, prevention and treatment of diseases in general, i.e., also those of organisms now inhabiting terrestrial environments.

DAO strives for

• complete coverage of research on diseases in aquatic organisms
• the highest possible quality of scientific contributions
• quick publication
• a high technical standard of presentation

Scope

DAO publishes Research Articles, Reviews, and Notes, as well as Comments/Reply Comments (for details see DAO 48:161), Theme Sections and Opinion Pieces. For details consult the Guidelines for Authors. Papers may cover all forms of life - animals, plants and microorganisms - in marine, limnetic and brackish habitats. DAO's scope includes any research focusing on diseases in aquatic organisms, specifically:
 

• Diseases caused by coexisting organisms, e.g. viruses, bacteria, fungi, protistans, metazoans; characterization of pathogens
• Diseases caused by abiotic factors (critical intensities of environmental properties, including pollution)
• Diseases due to internal circumstances (innate, idiopathic, genetic)
• Diseases due to proliferative disorders (neoplasms)
• Disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention
• Molecular aspects of diseases
• Nutritional disorders
• Stress and physical injuries
• Epidemiology/epizootiology
• Parasitology
• Toxicology
• Diseases of aquatic organisms affecting human health and well-being (with the focus on the aquatic organism)
• Diseases as indicators of humanity's detrimental impact on nature
• Genomics, proteomics and metabolomics of disease
• Immunology and disease prevention
• Animal welfare
• Zoonosis

IMPORTANT: Case reports (published e.g. as Research Article or Note) are only suitable for publication in DAO if they include new information on the pathogen involved (e.g. a new strain), the host response (e.g. clinical signs or pathogenicity) or other significant ancillary information.

Publications in DAO are of interest to physicians, veterinarians, environmental biologists, fishery biologists and ecologists, aquaculturalists, pathologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, botanists, and zoologists. DAO is an indispensable source of information for all concerned with health of humans, animals, plants and microorganisms; environmental protection; resource management; ecosystem health; conservation of organisms and habitats; and aquafood production.

DAO is international and interdisciplinary. The journal was founded by Professor Otto Kinne in 1984.

The only publication fee charged by the journal is the Article Processing Charge (APC) for Open Access publication. There are no other article submission or publication fees such as page charges or colour charges.