European Journal of Taxonomy

European Journal of Taxonomy
Title	European Journal of Taxonomy
Discipline	Taxonomy, Systematics, Biodiversity
Language	English
Frequency	Irregular / Continuous
History	2011–present

European Journal of Taxonomy is an open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the formal description, revision, and synthesis of biodiversity through taxonomic monographs and faunistic, floristic, and systematic studies. It publishes original articles, monographs, checklists, and keys that document species diversity and nomenclatural acts, contributing to conservation, biogeography, and phylogenetics. The journal serves a global community of taxonomists and systematists, connecting work on invertebrates, plants, fungi, and protists to wider efforts in biodiversity inventory, museum curation, and environmental policy.

History

The journal was established in the early 21st century amid international initiatives to modernize taxonomic publishing and align with digital repositories associated with institutions such as the Natural History Museum, London, the Smithsonian Institution, the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. Its founding responded to calls from forums including the Global Taxonomy Initiative, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and meetings of the International Union for Conservation of Nature to improve access to primary taxonomic literature. Early editorial leadership drew on networks spanning the Royal Society, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and the European Commission research programs, aligning publication practices with projects like the Barcode of Life Data Systems and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Over time the journal integrated workflows influenced by the practices of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Integrated Digitized Biocollections community, and major natural history societies such as the Linnean Society of London and the Entomological Society of America.

Scope and Content

European Journal of Taxonomy prioritizes taxonomic revisions, species descriptions, monographic syntheses, and regional checklists across taxa studied in collections at institutions like the Natural History Museum of Denmark, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, and the Finnish Museum of Natural History. It embraces contributions that incorporate morphological, molecular, and ecological evidence linked to standards from the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, and the procedures advocated by the International Barcode of Life Consortium. The journal frequently publishes works involving collaborations among researchers affiliated with universities such as the University of Oxford, the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Barcelona, and the University of Helsinki as well as curators from the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Australian National University.

Editorial Process and Policies

Manuscripts undergo peer review coordinated by an editorial board composed of specialists who have served on boards of organizations such as the International Society of Zoological Sciences, the Society for the Study of Evolution, the European Molecular Biology Organization, and national academies including the French Academy of Sciences. The journal adheres to ethical guidelines comparable to those promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics and follows nomenclatural registration practices involving repositories like ZooBank and the Index Fungorum. Submission policies encourage authors to deposit vouchers in collections at institutions such as the Natural History Museum, London, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam and to make sequences available through databases including GenBank and the European Nucleotide Archive. Editorial oversight emphasizes transparency, reproducibility, and compliance with permits and access arrangements under agreements inspired by the Nagoya Protocol and regional legislation such as France’s heritage laws administered by the Ministère de la Culture.

Publication and Access Model

The journal operates on a fully open-access model, publishing under licenses compatible with major funders and initiatives like the European Research Council, the Horizon 2020 program, and national research councils across Europe. It offers immediate online publication and digital archiving in platforms used by institutions like the Biodiversity Heritage Library and partner repositories such as the Institutional Repository of the Royal Society. The open model supports integration with global infrastructures including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the Catalogue of Life, and museum collection portals at the Natural History Museum Vienna and the National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

Indexing and Abstracting

European Journal of Taxonomy is indexed and abstracted in major bibliographic services and taxonomic registries used by researchers affiliated with institutions like the Max Planck Society, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the ETH Zurich. Its content is discoverable through aggregators and indexes comparable to those employed by the Web of Science, Scopus (Elsevier), and specialist taxonomic databases including the Catalogue of Life and the World Register of Marine Species. Bibliographic visibility supports citation tracking relevant to funding agencies such as the Wellcome Trust and national science foundations.

Impact and Reception

The journal has been recognized by curators, taxonomists, and conservationists at organizations such as the IUCN Red List secretariat, the BirdLife International partnership, and the International Plant Names Index for improving accessibility to primary descriptions and nomenclatural acts. Its open-access monographs have been cited in regional faunal surveys produced by institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum and policy reports commissioned by the European Environment Agency. Peer communities including the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature and the International Mycological Association have engaged with its practices in workshops and symposia.

Notable Publications and Contributions

The journal has published comprehensive taxonomic revisions and faunal syntheses impacting regional checklists and conservation assessments prepared by bodies such as the Council of Europe, the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment, and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. Noteworthy contributions include large-scale monographs used by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, the University of São Paulo, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences that integrated molecular datasets deposited in GenBank and morphological datasets curated at the Natural History Museum, London and the Smithsonian Institution collections. These works have supported downstream studies in biogeography by authors affiliated with the University of Cambridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Tokyo.

Category:Academic journals