Minutes of the ICSP Executive Board Meetings, Term 2023-2026

Chair: E.R.B. MOORE University of Gothenburg Sweden Vice-Chair: C.M. MANAIA Universidad Católica Portuguesa Portugal Executive Secretary: A. OREN Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Secretary for Subcommittees: S.L.W. ON Lincoln University New Zealand Treasurer: P. NIELSEN Novozymes, Copenhagen Denmark Members at Large: R. HAHNKE Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany M. SAKAMOTO RIKEN BioResource Research Center Japan Members of the Judicial Committee Chair: D.R. ARAHAL University of Valencia Spain Vice-Chair: H. CHRISTENSEN University of Copenhagen Denmark Secretary: M. GÖKER Leibniz Institute DSMZ Germany International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes EB-ICSP Meeting 31st July 2025 - Minutes Minute 1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 10.00 CEST. Minute 2. Record of attendance The following members of the Executive Board (EB) participated: E.R.B. Moore (Chair), C.M. Manaia (Vice-Chair), A. Oren (Executive Secretary), P. Nielsen (Treasurer). D.R. Arahal (Chair JC), H. Christensen (Vice-Chair JC), and M. Göker (Secretary JC). Apologies were received from S.L.W. On (Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy), R. Hahnke (Member-at-Large), and M. Sakamoto (Member-at-Large). Minute 3. Minutes of the 3rd July 2025 meeting of the EB The draft minutes of the 3rd July 2025 meeting were approved. A. Oren will distribute a redacted version of these minutes to the members of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), the Judicial Commission (JC), and chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy, and he will send a copy to E.R.B. Moore to be posted on the ICSP website. Minute 4. Matters Arising/Action points from previous meetings A. Oren has forwarded the minutes of the 2nd June meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the Chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore has posted the minutes of the 2nd June meeting of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. A. Oren has sent a copy of the draft minutes of the 19th June plenary meeting to S.L.W. On. E.R.B. Moore has contacted J. Pieters to ask whether she prefers to wait for the appointment letter as a Full member from the South African Society for Microbiology or to process her nomination as a Co-opted member. See Minute 5. P. Nielsen and H. Christensen have sent a reminder shortly before 25th July to those members who had not yet returned the ballot form for emending the ICSP statutes. A. Oren has circulated a draft version of the publication of the revised Statutes to the co-authors of the proposal. The document was submitted on 26th July for publishing in the IJSEM. Page 2 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes D.R. Arahal has consulted H. Christensen and M. Göker to make recommendations to the EB on whether the revised version of the Statutes must be applied retroactively for voting procedures on ballots for ratification of JC opinions that were initiated before the revision takes effect. See Minute 7. M. Göker did not yet contact J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society to discuss the option of establishing an online submission system for validation requests; he is waiting until the ICSP budget can be confirmed. See Minute 7. A. Oren has prepared a draft ballot form for voting on the emendations of the ICNP and sent it for comments to all members of the ICNP editorial board. S.L.W. On has notified the initiators who had propose re-establishing a Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Neisseriaceae that the EB has approved their proposal. E.R.B. Moore has updated the list of active Subcommittees on Taxonomy on the ICSP website. Minute 5. Update on co-option for ICSP membership E.R.B. Moore reported that J. Pieters (University of Stellenbosch) was appointed to be the representative of the South African Society for Microbiology (SASM) to the ICSP starting 1st April 2026, to replace S.N. Venter. As J. Pieters is interested in getting involved in the work of the ICSP also before that date, E.R.B. Moore proposed to nominate her for co-option, and he will prepare the necessary documents. As the new statutes (see Minute 6) enable the appointment of 2 or 3 delegates by large societies, A. Oren has alerted the Israel Society for Microbiology that it is now entitled to appoint a second delegate. A. Oren will send relevant information to all ICSP members so that they can encourage IUMS member societies with more than 500 or 1000 members to appoint one or two additional delegates, respectively. Minute 6. Results of voting on Emendation of the ICSP Statutes A. Oren announced that the ballot for the revision of the statutes of the ICSP was closed on 25th July. Of the 55 ICSP members eligible to vote, 48 returned the ballot form. The result was as follows: Endorse the proposed version Retain the original version Abstention Block E - giving IUMS Member Societies the right to appoint more than one Full member to the ICSP, depending on their size 39 7 2 Block L - giving Life Members the same voting rights as Co-opted Members 42 6 0 Block M - miscellaneous clarifications, adaptations to modern practice, filling of gaps, and other improvements of the wording 44 3 1 Block P - separation of powers between the legislative and judiciary branch 46 1 1 Page 3 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Block U - formal regulation of the work of Ad Hoc Subcommittees in analogy to the work of Subcommittees on Taxonomy 46 2 0 Block V - clarification and streamlining of debates, revisions, and voting procedures 44 2 2 Block X - extending the time that committed members can serve on the Executive Board and broaden the range of members who can serve as Members-at-Large 41 6 1 A. Oren thanked H. Christensen and P. Nielsen, who served as the tellers. The approved revision of the Statutes was submitted for publication in the IJSEM on 26th July. Issues of retroactivity in the new Statutes The revised Statutes (see Minute 6) will take effect when the document is published in the IJSEM. The question was addressed to what extent the new Statutes can be applied retroactively in the interim period, particularly with respect to the time allowed for ICSP members to vote on emendations of the ICNP: three months, based on the 2019 version; or six weeks, based on the revised Statutes. The question also affects the way judicial opinions are processed. The three representatives of the JC within the EB-ICSP prefer not to apply the new Statutes retroactively, once they have been published in the IJSEM. They recommended that ICSP processes that were formally initiated under the previous statutes should also be finalized according to those statutes. One reason for this preference is that, when submitting manuscripts, the authors of Requests for an Opinion or proposals for emendations of the ICNP could not know in advance which aspects of the new Statutes would come into effect and how. They also consider it mandatory that all ICSP processes are treated in the same way; that is to say, it must be strictly avoided to apply some aspects of the new Statutes retroactively while applying others not retroactively. The EB adopted this statement. This decision affects two opinions to be issued and also the 2025 revision of the ICNP. Therefore, the ballot for ICSP voting on the proposed 2025 revision of the ICNP will be open for three months. Minute 7. Establishment of an online submission system for validation requests M. Göker did not yet contact the Microbiology Society staff on this topic. He did make inquiries about the expected cost of web hosting for such a system if it cannot be hosted on the server of the Microbiology Society. He estimated that a commercial company, such as Hetzner (https://www.hetzner.com), would charge around Euro 50 per month for the kind of service needed. ICSP Treasurer, P. Nielsen stated that this would not be a problem. It also must be noted that the ICSP has held the 2018 payment for LPSN in reserve for this purpose. M. Göker will now make the necessary inquiries with J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society. M. Göker did not yet contact the Microbiology Society staff on this topic. He did make inquiries about the expected cost of web hosting for such a system if it cannot be hosted on the server of the Microbiology Society. He estimated that a commercial company, such as Hetzner (https://www.hetzner.com), would charge around Euro 50 per month for the kind of service needed. ICSP Treasurer, P. Nielsen stated that this would not be a problem. It also must be noted that the ICSP has held the 2018 payment for LPSN in reserve for this purpose. Page 4 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes M. Göker will now make the necessary inquiries with J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society. Minute 8. Nomenclature reviews for journals other than the IJSEM A. Oren recently received several requests from authors who had submitted manuscripts to Current Microbiology to review nomenclature-related aspects of their manuscripts. The Managing Editor of Curr. Microbiol., W.F.A. Teo, who also is an Associate Editor of the Editorial Board of the IJSEM, had added a requirement to the Instructions for Authors of Curr. Microbiol. to confirm in a checklist that the proposed name and etymology for the new taxa had been checked by an IJSEM Nomenclature Reviewer. A. Oren replied to those authors that their demand is inappropriate, as the IJSEM Nomenclature Reviewers work for the IJSEM and have no obligation to provide services to other journals (even if they have been doing so voluntarily for a long time already). A. Oren corresponded with W.F.A. Teo on the topic. Dr. Teo has since deleted the problematic requirement from the instructions for authors of his journal. As correct nomenclature in all journals is important, and as the List Editors of the IJSEM have a direct interest in dealing with correctly formed names when handling validation requests, the establishment of a formal arrangement between Curr. Microbiol. and the ICSP, may be considered to assist authors of Curr. Microbiol. with nomenclature matters, for example, in exchange for a nominal symbolic annual honorarium to be paid by the publisher of Curr. Microbiol. to the ICSP. A. Oren trusts that the other IJSEM nomenclature reviewers (M. Kostovski, B. Schink, S. Ventura) will not object, as the additional workload will be negligible, especially if each will check only a quarter of the species description papers submitted to Curr. Microbiol. C.M. Manaia suggested that the Microbiology Society should be informed of any formal arrangement between the Curr. Microbiol. and the ICSP, for transparency purposes. this issue was discussed. A. Oren will invite W.F.A. Teo to contact C.M. Manaia, Chair of the ICSP Publications Committee, to negotiate an arrangement that will enable the editors of Curr. Microbiol. to use the services of the IJSEM Nomenclature Reviewers in the future. Minute 9. Update from the JC Opinion 132 has been published (Arahal et al., IJSEM 2025; 75:006819). D.R. Arahal reported that the JC is working on Opinion 133 and that the preparation of Opinion 134 will soon start. A number of JC members have been active in the public discussion on the draft revision` of the ICNP on the Slack channel. Minute 10. Update from the Editor-in-Chief of the ICNP A. Oren reported that the six-month open discussion on the 2025 revision of the ICNP ended on 29th July. During the past weeks, there was a very lively discussion with a number of participants. The editorial board of the ICNP has met on 21st July to decide on the format of the ballot material. The documents to be sent to the voting members of the ICNP and the ballot form are almost ready. A. Oren will circulate the documents to all present at the Executive Board meeting for last comments and corrections, to be submitted no later than 1st August 05.00 CEST. It is the intention to start the ballot on 1st August. The ballot will remain open for three months (see Minute 6). P. Nielsen volunteered to serve as a teller. A. Oren will ask M. Kostovski whether he is willing to be the second teller. A. Oren will send a preview of the version submitted to the voting members to J. Kelly, N. Froude and D. Georgescu at the Microbiology Society, to that they can prepare the production staff to process the final Page 5 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes document after submission in the beginning of November in a timely way. Copies will be sent to M.E. Trujillo and C.M. Manaia. M. Göker will consider publication of the annotated draft 2025 revision of the ICNP on Zenodo. Minute 11. Update from the IJSEM and the Publications Committee C.M. Manaia had no updates from the Publications Committee. M. Göker mentioned that he was contacted by D. Georgescu at the Microbiology Society about a paper in which a new ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma’ is proposed, as she wanted to ensure that the paper is compatible with the new regulations for Candidatus taxa. He suggested that the authors would need to rephrase certain sentences in the protologue to make this compatible and to make it possible to pro-validly publish the name. Minute 12. Update from the Treasurer P. Nielsen will prepare the draft annual financial report in the near future and circulate it among the members of the EB. R.R. de la Haba had requested a refund for travel expenses. P. Nielsen has successfully updated his identification information with NatWest Bankline for online managing of the ICSP accounts; E.R.B. Moore has had problems to update his information with NatWest. Minute 13. Update from Subcommittees on Taxonomy S.L.W. On apologized for not participate in the meeting. He submitted a report to be discussed by the EB. The EB will discuss the document at its next meeting when S.L.W. On can attend. S.L.W. On reported that he has had acknowledgement from the nominated Chair of the new Subcommittee for the Taxonomy of the Neisseriaceae (Frederic Veyrier) and expects to receive updates on developments. No other activities of Subcommittees have been reported. Update on dissolution of inactive subcommittees E.R.B. Moore reported that the Taxonomic subcommittees page on the ICSP website has been recently updated so that only the active subcommittees on taxonomy are listed. Minute 14. Update from Working Groups and Ad Hoc Committees M. Göker proposed that the ICSP Working Groups be changed to Ad Hoc Committees, with elected Chairs and Secretaries. Reporting on the Ad Hoc Committees would be assumed by the Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy, as described in the recently adopted Statutes. E.R.B. Moore explained that the Working Group on Type Strain Accessibility is currently inactive. He proposes to past Working Group members for converting the working group into an ad hoc subcommittee, and he will invite all ICSP members and other relevant colleagues to join. Closing matters There was no other business. Page 6 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes The meeting was adjourned at 11.40 CEST. Minutes prepared by A. Oren, 2nd August 2025. Date / time of next meeting: 28 August 2025 @ 10:00 CEST Action points A. Oren, to forward the minutes of the 3rd July meeting of the Executive Board to all members of the ICSP, the Judicial Commission and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Taxonomy. E.R.B. Moore, to post the minutes of the 3rd July meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. A. Oren, to inform all ICSP members that IUMS member societies with more than 500 or 1000 members can now appoint one or two additional delegates, respectively. M. Göker, to contact J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society, to discuss the option of establishing an online submission system for validation requests. A. Oren, to invite W.F.A. Teo to contact C.M. Manaia to negotiate an arrangement that will enable the editors of Current Microbiology to use the services of the IJSEM nomenclature reviewers in the future. A. Oren, to ask M. Kostovski whether he is willing to be a second teller for the ballot on the 2025 revision of the ICNP. A. Oren, to circulate the documents for the ballot on the 2025 revision of the ICNP to all present at the Executive Board meeting for last comments and corrections, to be submitted no later than 1st August 05.00 CEST. A. Oren, to send a preview of the draft 2025 revision of the ICNP to J. Kelly, N. Froude and D. Georgescu at the Microbiology Society, with copies to M.E. Trujillo and C.M. Manaia. M. Göker, to consider publication of the annotated draft 2025 revision of the ICNP on Zenodo. P. Nielsen, to prepare the draft annual financial report and circulate it among the members of the EB. E.R.B. Moore, to contact ICSP members and others who may be interested to join an ad hoc subcommittee on type strain availability.