The International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology moves to ‘true continuous publication’ at the beginning of 2021: Proposals to emend Rule 24b (2), Note 1 to Rule 27 and Note 2 to Rule 33b of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes

The International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) will move to ‘true continuous publication’ during the first months of 2021 to modernize the workflow and align it with the current online-only nature of the journal. In the new format, articles will be cited using an article number rather than page numbering. The article number will be the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) suffix, i.e., the last six digits of the DOI. Benefits of the new system include streamlining in-house processes, hence, reducing time and costs, and speeding up the publication time of the final ‘Version of Record’. Because of the new format of the IJSEM, it is necessary to emend Rule 24b (2) and Note 1 paragraph 3 of Rule 27 of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) to regulate matters of priority for papers published after January 2021. We also propose adding another example to Note 2 of Rule 33b to clarify how nomenclatural authorities of names published in the IJSEM from 2021 onward must be cited.