Description
Systematics and Biodiversity is devoted to whole-organism biology. It is an international, peer-reviewed Life Science journal published online and in print by Taylor & Francis for The Natural History Museum, London. The criterion for publication is scientific merit. Systematics and Biodiversity aims to document the diversity of all groups of living organisms through systematic papers that have broad context, and that address topical issues relating to biological collections, museum science and the principles and practice of systematics and related fields, including phylogenetics, evolution and conservation. It particularly emphasises the importance and multi-disciplinary significance of systematics and museum science, with contributions that address the implications of other fields on the practice of Systematics and that advance our understanding of other fields through taxonomic knowledge, especially in relation to the nature, origins, and conservation of biodiversity at all taxonomic levels. The Journal does not normally publish single species descriptions, nor works that are monographic in scope or length, and printed articles are limited to 20 pages. Taxonomic manuscripts will normally include a combination of data types that corroborate the circumscription and delineation of taxa at various levels, including phylogenetic and/or population-level analyses. Authors describing new taxa will be well versed in, and adhere to, the nomenclatural rules of the Code relevant to their study group. Papers that are highly integrative, broad in scope, and/or provide extensive contextual information relating to the study group are strongly encouraged and prioritise over submissions that are largely limited to descriptive taxonomy. The rejection rate is currently around 50%. The Journal publishes original, novel papers in the form of empirical Research Articles and Perspectives. In addition to taxonomic discovery, description, and revision, Research Articles include studies of adaptation, anatomy, biodiversity patterns in time and space (including response to environmental and human factors, and to global change), phylogeny, biogeography, evolution, conservation, genomics, development, functional morphology, growth and form, bar-coding, speciation, and ecology (inter alia). Perspectives include state-of-knowledge, opinions and reviews on the theory and practice of systematics and related fields.
