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about
What is EJT?
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The European Journal of Taxonomy is a fully refereed, international, electronic open access journal in descriptive taxonomy, covering subjects in zoology (including entomology), botany (in its broadest sense), mycology, and paleontology.

It provides immediate free open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports and encourages a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Journal history

The European Journal of Taxonomy was initiated by a task force of six people from the EDIT (European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy) network who worked together from June 2009 to September 2011 to propose a joint journal that would solve some of the issues identified in shifting from paper to e-only publishing for institutional journals in taxonomy. The task force was given a mandate by the EDIT directors to investigate the need for and feasibility of launching such a joint e-journal. After their investigation, the task force presented a business model involving natural history institutions (NHIs). Five NHIs (National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France; Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium; Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium; Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom; Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium) offered their financial support and/or their in-kind support (skilled publishing staff, IT staff), which provides autonomy for the journal. After a proofing period of the publishing model, workflow model and editorial team organisation, the first article was published on September 9th 2011.

Journal data

From its launch, the European Journal of Taxonomy has committed to ensuring the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR principles) of its data.

In 2017, the consortium partnered with the non-profit organization Plazi to retroconvert the metadata of articles published in PDF format, along with the taxonomic treatments and material citations they contain, into XML Taxpub format. To ensure adequate granularity, the journal adopted a new standard for formatting the material (Chester et al. 2019). The articles, as well as the associated treatments, figures, and metadata, are deposited in the Biodiversity Literature Repository (Zenodo). From there, the data is disseminated across various relevant databases, such as GBIF.

However, it should be noted that this workflow has certain limitations. The retroconversion of an unstructured article, despite the use of quality control tools, may lead to slight discrepancies. GBIF has introduced a feedback mechanism for each material citation, allowing users to alert Plazi about erroneous conversions, which will be corrected in due course.

To prevent discrepancies and enrich articles, EJT initiated the development of a new workflow based on the XML-first approach (MetoTaxa), in collaboration with Plazi and the University of Caen-Normandie. After several years of development, testing, and improvements, the tool will be deployed in 2025.

Journal sponsorship

The journal is funded and published by a consortium of 10 natural history institutions (NHIs):

  • National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France (2011–)
  • Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium (2011–)
  • Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (2011–)
  • Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium (2011–)
  • Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark (2011–)
  • Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands (2016–)
  • Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain (2017–)
  • Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Bonn, Germany (2018–)
  • National Museum of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic (2019–)
  • The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv, Israël (2023–)

Former members of the consortium:

  • Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom (2011–2018)
  • Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain (2017–2022)

Merged titles

Several journals have been merged into the European Journal of Taxonomy:

  • Journal of Afrotropical Zoology (2004–2011)
  • Bulletin de l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique - Entomologie (1972–2008)
  • Bulletin de l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique - Biologie (1972–2008)
  • Bulletin de l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique - Sciences de la Terre (1972–2011)
  • Steenstrupia (1970–2012)
  • Zoologische Mededelingen (1915–2014)