Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the journal.

Before submitting you should read over the guidelines here, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account)

Register Login

About

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 (i.e., species delimitation or taxonomic practice) or have evolved (e.g., phylogeography, biogeography, or 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.

Focus and Scope

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 (i.e., species delimitation or taxonomic practice) or have evolved (e.g., phylogeography, biogeography, or 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.

Submission Checklist

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  • If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring an Anonymous Review have been followed.
  • The corresponding author acknowledges responsibility for sharing journal communications with co-authors (if applicable).
  • If new taxon names are being proposed, the authors have registered the nomenclature with the proper database (ZooBank, International Plant Names Index, Index Fungorum).
  • All figures, charts, graphs, and images include alt text.

Copyright Notice

This Author Agreement for Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists ("Agreement") is entered into by and between The Ohio State University, on behalf of its University Libraries ("Publisher") and the author ("Author").

For good and valuable consideration, Publisher and Author agree as follows: 

1. Author hereby grants to Publisher the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, translate, transmit and display his/her submitted work and an abstract thereof ("Work") in the Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists in whole or in part and in all formats and all media. as well as to ensure accessibility of works under University policy and current web accessibility standards. Author also hereby grants to Publisher the right for Publisher to enter into agreements with third parties that grant such third parties any or all of the rights that Author has granted to Publisher herein. The aforementioned rights may include the rights necessary to index and abstract the Work. The Author agrees that any subsequent publication of the Work will credit Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists as the site of first publication and provide a link to Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists. This Agreement is subject to the terms and expectations outlined on Publisher's website (http://go.osu.edu/publishing-services). 

2. Author represents and warrants that: (1) they are the creator and rights holder of the Work; (2) Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein will not infringe or violate any copyright or any other right of a third party; (3) if the Work contains any third party content, they have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner or that use of third party material is allowed because the material is in the public domain or an appropriate fair use analysis has been performed and there is a reasonable belief that use is permitted and (4) the Work contains nothing libelous or otherwise unlawful. Author hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher and its trustees, officers, employees, agents, and subgrantees from all claims related to Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein or related to the subject matter covered in Author's representations and warranties.

Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, to allow for certain types of reuse without permission. By submitting this agreement, the Author agrees to apply a CC BY 4.0 license to the Work upon publication.

Peer Review

Submissions to BSSB are first reviewed by the editor to determine if they fit within the Focus and Scope of the journal. Submissions are then evaluated by peer-reviewers who are experts. BSSB’s submissions are peer-reviewed using either a single-blind or double-blind process, depending on the author’s preference. If authors submit an anonymized manuscript, the review will be double-blind, meaning that neither the authors of the submission know the identity of those who review the submission, nor do reviewers know the identity of the authors. If authors do not submit an anonymized manuscript, the review will be single-blind, meaning that the authors will not know the identity of those who review the submission, but the reviewers will know the identity of the authors. The final decision to accept or reject a submission is made by the Editor and is based on the reports of the peer-reviewers.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • Copyright
    © the author(s). All rights reserved.
  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-SA 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • imported
    None

Publication Fees

You should update this section to show any fees that your journal charges.

Publication Cycle

This journal published continuously all year round/publishes in issues every x months.

Sections

Sections submission information
Section or article type Public Submissions Peer Reviewed Indexed
Applications Yes Yes Yes
Investigations Yes Yes Yes
Descriptions Yes Yes Yes
Monographs Yes Yes Yes
Perspectives Yes Yes Yes
Article Yes Yes Yes
Reviews Yes Yes Yes
Investigations Yes Yes Yes
Applications Yes Yes Yes
Descriptions Yes Yes Yes
Monographs Yes Yes Yes
Reviews Yes Yes Yes