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 30th September 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), S.L.W. On (Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy), P. Nielsen (Treasurer), M. Sakamoto (Member-at-Large), D.R. Arahal (Chair JC), and M. Göker (Secretary JC). Apologies were received from R. Hahnke (Member-at-Large), H. Christensen (Vice-Chair JC). Minute 3. Minutes of the 28st August 2025 meeting of the EB The draft minutes of the 28st August 2025 meeting were approved after a minor correction. A. Oren will distribute 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 31st 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 has posted the minutes of the 31st July meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. E.R.B. Moore has contacted two ICSP members who may be interested to join an ad hoc subcommittee on type strain availability. A. Oren has contacted R.A. Samson to inquire about the status of Interregional Russian Microbiological Society, the Society for Applied Microbiology (Applied Microbiology International), and Italian microbiological societies within IUMS. See Minute 5. P. Nielsen has sent reminders to the voting members who have not yet returned the ballot form for the 2025 revision of the ICNP. C.M. Manaia has obtained information from N. Froude and D. Georgescu about the average time between manuscript submission and publication in the IJSEM. See Minute 13. Page 2 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Two EB members have submit suggestions on how to promote the ICSP on LinkedIn. A. Oren has requested from E.R.B. Moore to reschedule the next EB-ICSP meeting as 25th September is not suitable. Minute 5. Update on the ICSP membership A. Oren reported that the German Society of Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) has appointed K. Becker and U. Reischl as full members of the ICSP. Their term will start as soon as the July 2025 revision of the ICSP statutes is published, and will end on 31st March 2026, unless the DGHM will notify us otherwise. The Société Française de Microbiologie has appointed S. Brisse and I. Caspar as full members of the ICSP. Their term will start as soon as the July 2025 revision of the ICSP statutes is published, and will end on 31st March 2029. The Federation of Microbiological Societies of Japan has extended the term of M. Sakamoto until 31st March 2029. J. Pieters (South Africa) has been appointed co-opted member of the ICSP until 31st March 2026 (22 votes in favor, 0 objections, 2 abstentions; H. Christensen and M. Kostovski served as the tellers). She will become a full member starting 1st April 2026. After publication of the revised statutes, A. Oren will contact the current full members and co-opted members and the microbiology societies affiliated with the BAM division of IUMS to make arrangements for (re)appointment for the 2026-2029 term. He has received information from R.A. Samson (Secretary of IUMS) about the affiliated societies and the numbers of their members. The Interregional Russian Microbiological Society and the Society for Applied Microbiology, now Applied Microbiology International, which in the past have appointed full members of the ICSP, are no longer IUMS members, and can therefore not appoint full members for the 2026-2029 term. E.R.B. Moore intends to inform those societies whose delegates did not regularly return ICSP ballots. According to the revised statutes, members of the JC cannot simultaneously be full or co-opted members of the ICSP. As this arrangement is not retroactive, three full members and two co-opted members will remain JC members until the end of the current term (31st March 2026 for full members, 1st May 2026 for co-opted members). Minute 6. Status of publication of the new ICSP Statutes A. Oren reported that the publication of the July 2025 revision of the ICSP statutes was delayed several times because of poor work by the typesetters. He expects that the document will be published very soon. [note: the document was published online later on 30th September - https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006918]. Page 3 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Minute 7. Discussion and decision about reviews of ICSP reports in IJSEM In view of earlier problems and misunderstandings in the handling of ICSP reports for publishing in IJSEM, M.E. Trujillo has asked for guidelines on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled. One option is to publish such documents without peer review. Another option is to have these documents reviewed, based on specific instructions and information about the possibilities of reviewers to request modifications. M. Göker will send a document with draft guidelines to the EB. C.M. Manaia will then convene the Publications Committee to further discuss the matter and to provide appropriate guidelines for the IJSEM editors and reviewers. Minute 8. Update on online submission system for validation requests M. Göker reported that a meeting has been scheduled for 30th September to discuss the topic. Participants will be M. Göker, A. Oren, M. Kostovski, and N. Froude, D. Georgescu and J. Kelly of the Microbiology Society. Minute 9. Update on nomenclature reviews for journals other than the IJSEM No further information was received from W.F.A. Teo, managing editor of Current Microbiology. Ongoing. Minute 10. Suggestions on how to promote the ICSP on LinkedIn P. Nielsen commented that the best way to promote the use of LinkedIn is to actively use it ourselves. He is prepared to post material for others who do not use LinkedIn. Ongoing. Minute 11. Update from the JC There were no updates since the previous EB meeting. Minute 12. Update from the Editor-in-Chief of the ICNP The ballot on the 2025 revision of the ICNP is ongoing. No new comments have been posted on the Slack channel. Minute 13. Update from IJSEM and Publications Committee C.M. Manaia reported on the annual editorial board meeting of the IJSEM held on 5th September by video conference. Among the issues discussed were the impact factor of the journal and the quality of the papers published. Average time to first decision is currently 63 days (other than for pre-screen rejects). Time to final decision is 95 days on average, but this increases to 147 days for manuscripts that are accepted. A. Oren reported that, thanks to the efforts of C.O. Jeon, the problem of the Page 4 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes ‘blacklisted’ Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (see the minutes of the EB meeting of 25th December 2022) has been solved. The original Version of Record of the paper on Variovorax terrae has been restored, and an appropriate corrigendum was published. A. Oren will include in the upcoming Validation List 227 12 names from 10 articles in the journal for which validation was denied in the past. Minute 14. Update from the Treasurer P. Nielsen reported that he had encountered technical problems with the reimbursement of travel expenses to S.N. Venter and R.R. de la Haba. He hopes that the problem will soon be solved. The annual financial report that was circulated among the members of the EB was not discussed; it will be submitted for approval by the EB at its next meeting. Minute 15. Update from Subcommittees on Taxonomy S.L.W. On had no updates since the previous EB meeting. Minute 16. Update from Working Groups and Ad Hoc Committees M. Göker reported that a new revision of the paper entitled ‘List of Recommended Names for bacteria of medical importance: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Changes in Prokaryotic Nomenclature’ is currently in review. A paper describing subgenera of Borrelia and Borreliella and another paper describing new subgenera for the Mycobacteriales were recently published. Companies that provide identification systems (Bruker, bioMérieux) have not yet sent representatives to the CoMiCProN Ad Hoc Committee, and negotiations on the usage of the List of Recommended Names have started. Closing matters A. Oren reported that he will present the 2025 Revision of the ICNP in a talk during the BISMiS 2025 meeting in Qingdao China in mid-October. Date / time of next meeting: 30 October 2025 @ 09:00 CET. The meeting was adjourned at 12.05 CEST. Minutes prepared by A. Oren, 1st October 2025. Page 5 of 5 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Action points A. Oren, to forward the minutes of the 28th August 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 28th August meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. M. Göker, to send to the EB members draft guidelines on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled. C.M. Manaia, to convene the Publications Committee to discuss the draft guidelines on how ICSP reports and minutes submitted for publication in the IJSEM should be handled by IJSEM editors and reviewers.