The Society of Systematic Biologists advances the science of systematic biology in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual specialization.
Recent News
Evolution 2022 Meeting (Virtual and In Person)
Join members of the Society of Systematic Biologists, as well as the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Naturalists, at this year's Evolution meeting!
This will be our first hybrid meeting, including virtual events on June 21-22 and in-person events in Cleveland, OH on June 24-28. Register now to join for both the in-person and virtual dates or virtual only.
SSB is sponsoring an exciting lineup of events at the meeting, including workshops and symposia! There will also be a variety of opportunities to network and socialize, including the closing Super Social at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Explore the meeting website or follow on Twitter (@systbiol and @Evol_mtg) to learn more.
Be sure to register by May 15th to secure the discounted rate for in-person attendance. May 15th is also the deadline for submitting both virtual and in-person talks. Registration at standard rates will continue to be accepted through June 20th.
Call for SSB Council Graduate Student Representative Nominations
The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) invites nominations for one new graduate student representative (hereafter “grad rep”) to serve on the SSB Council from August 1st, 2022 to July 31st, 2024. As a member of SSB Council, the grad rep will play an important role in the functioning of SSB and provide input to help shape the future of the Society. Grad reps help develop initiatives to better serve student members, participate in Council meetings, and engage with student representatives from other societies (e.g., the American Society of Naturalists and the Society for the Study of Evolution). Any student member of SSB may nominate themselves. Faculty are also encouraged to nominate student members of SSB, provided the student has given consent to the nomination. More information available here.
Proposed Code of Ethics
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Since 2018, there has been a tri-society initiative to develop a Code of Ethics for the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the American Society of Naturalists. While behavior at the annual Evolution meeting falls under a Code of Conduct, the societies currently have no policies regarding conduct outside the meeting. Adopting Codes of Ethics will allow the societies to establish explicit standards of excellence and a transparent process for upholding these standards, and in so doing, foster societies that are welcoming for everyone. The three societies have now each drafted their own Codes of Ethics. Before each Code is put into place, we are seeking our members’ feedback and approval.
We invite you to visit the Code of Ethics website, review the standards of conduct and processes for enforcement, ask any questions you may have, and give your feedback before March 7, 2022. Thank you for your participation! |
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SSB Legacy Committee
The new SSB Legacy Committee is working to create accessible content about our society's history. The founding members are Chris Simon, Michael Landis, Jim Rohlf, Gary Schnell, and Rosana Zenil-Ferguson. Go here for more information, and expect more soon.
SSB Council Review of Award Names
In the summer of 2020, the SSB Council began a discussion about potentially renaming the Ernst Mayr Award in Systematic Biology at the request of society members. Since then, the SSB leadership have been working in conjunction with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to learn more about the origin of named awards and their representation of the diverse membership within the society. Renaming the award is one step toward greater inclusivity within the society, as named awards often lead to feelings of exclusion among those who are members of underrepresented groups whose scientific contributions continue to remain unrecognized. At a council meeting following Virtual Evolution 2021, the Council voted to propose to all members an award name change, in conjunction with other actions intended to better recognize SSB’s history and legacy.
Please see the rationale for the proposed change for much more detail. Also, please see the statement by the president, past-president, and president elect on some of the subsequent discussion.
Please see the rationale for the proposed change for much more detail. Also, please see the statement by the president, past-president, and president elect on some of the subsequent discussion.
Isabel Sanmartín is the next Editor-in-Chief Elect of Systematic Biology
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We are pleased to announce that Dr. Isabel Sanmartín, Senior Research Scientist at Real Jardin Botanico-CSIC, has agreed to serve as the next Editor-in-Chief for Systematic Biology. Dr. Sanmartín’s term will begin in January 2022 with a year in the position of Editor-Elect while current EiC Dr. Bryan Carstens completes the final year of his term. Dr. Sanmartín will then assume the role of EiC in January 2023 until the completion of her term in 2026, with a two year overlap with the next Editor-Elect, a system that we hope contributes to managing more efficiently the increasing number of manuscript submissions and broadening scope, while maintaining the high quality standards of the journal. We look forward to Systematic Biology’s continuing role as the premier journal in our field under Dr. Sanmartín’s leadership
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Announcing The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists
We are pleased to announce that the Society of Systematic Biologists launched a new journal on May 1st, 2021. The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists (BSSB) will be published in collaboration with the Library Publishing Coalition at The Ohio State University Libraries. This innovative partnership will enable us to publish open access articles at a minimal cost to members of the Society of Systematic Biologists. Articles will be published without article processing charges (APCs) for SSB members. Stay tuned for the first issue of the Bulletin!
The Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists will publish manuscripts that advance our understanding of the Earth's biodiversity, with a special focus on investigations that describe how species are related (i.e., phylogeny), identified (e.g., species delimitation, morphometrics, taxonomic practice), or have evolved (e.g., phylogeography, biogeography, phylogenetic comparative methods). BSSB will also publish manuscripts that advance the theory or methods used in data analysis. Manuscripts will be evaluated on two criteria: the quality of the science and their contribution to our collective understanding of the focal species or clade. BSSB aims to publish investigations that utilize state of the art data analyses and high-quality data sets to achieve these goals.
Code of Conduct
We have a code of conduct at all our meetings; we encourage reporting of issues to members of the joint meeting council or members of our executive committee. All three societies are dedicated to making the meeting a welcoming place to all with no discrimination or harassment. To this end, we have created a form to aggregate the useful suggestions that have come in so far. To provide a suggestion, go here. To see the suggestions so far, please go here (SSB does not vet or approve of these suggestions -- we're merely aggregating them now for future discussion). Note that the form has been populated with public suggestions proposed on Twitter and Facebook so far (though the comments were made associated with names, it's not clear that people want their name associated, so only the first initial is included -- if you want your name included, please contact Brian O'Meara). We'll be doing more moving forward -- this is just a rapid response to capture ideas while they're fresh