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 28th August 2025 – Minutes Minute 1. The acting Chair called the meeting to order at 10.00 CEST. Minute 2. Record of attendance The following members of the Executive Board (EB) participated: C.M. Manaia (Vice-Chair, acting as Chair), A. Oren (Executive Secretary), S.L.W. On (Secretary for Subcommittees on Taxonomy), P. Nielsen (Treasurer), M. Sakamoto (Member-at-Large), H. Christensen (ViceChair JC), and M. Göker (Secretary JC). Apologies were received from E.R.B. Moore (Chair), R. Hahnke (Member-at-Large), and D.R. Arahal (Chair JC). Minute 3. Minutes of the 31st July 2025 meeting of the EB The draft minutes of the 31st July 2025 meeting were approved after minor corrections. 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 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 has posted the minutes of the 3rd July meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. A. Oren has informed 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 has contacted J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society, to discuss the option of establishing an online submission system for validation requests. See Minute 9. A. Oren has invited 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. See Minute 10. Page 2 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes M. Kostovski agreed to be a second teller for the ballot on the 2025 revision of the ICNP. A. Oren has circulated 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. A. Oren has sent 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 has published the annotated draft 2025 revision of the ICNP on Zenodo (see https://zenodo.org/records/16706213). P. Nielsen has prepared the draft annual financial report and circulated it among the members of the EB. E.R.B. Moore did not yet contact ICSP members and others who may be interested to join an ad hoc subcommittee on type strain availability. Ongoing. Minute 5. Update on co-option for ICSP membership J. Pieters, who will become a full member of the ICSP as the delegate of the South African Society for Microbiology in April 2026, has expressed interest to become a co-opted member until then. The ICSP full members are currently voting on her cooption. P. Nielsen, who is one of the tellers, will send a reminder to those who have not yet returned the ballot form. The ballot will be closed on 5th September. Minute 6. Renewing ICSP membership for 2026-2029 A. Oren presented his intention to start soon with the ICSP membership renewal for the term April 2026-March 2029. He will contact the current full members, alerting them to the need to obtain appointment letters from their societies if they wish to renew their membership. Later he will contact IUMS member societies who are not yet represented and invite them to appoint delegates. According to the new statutes, societies with 500999 or >1000 members can appoint two or three full members, respectively. A. Oren will inquire with IUMS secretary R.A. Samson about the status of Interregional Russian Microbiological Society and the Society for Applied Microbiology (now Applied Microbiology International) that are currently represented but are no longer on the list of IUMS member societies. He also will inquire about the status of five Italian microbiological societies on the IUMS members list, only one of which has a delegate in the ICSP. Co-opted members who wish to renew their membership must notify the Executive Secretary before April 1st 2026. The full members will then be invited to vote on the co-options. M. Göker reminded the EB that according to the new statutes, members of the JC can no longer be members of the ICSP, so they will need to resign from either body. Page 3 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Minute 7. Status of the 2025 revision of the ICNP P. Nielsen, who serves as one of the tellers for the ballot, stated that thus far only 10 voting members have returned the ballot form. He will send reminders to the remaining members around 1st September. Minute 8. Editorial review of ICSP publications and subcommittee minutes M. Göker presented the following proposal to clarify open issues concerning the publication of subcommittee minutes and other ICSP-related material in the IJSEM. "The EB-ICSP has decided that the 2025 revision of the Statutes regarding the publication of meeting minutes and other formal statements by the ICSP or its subcommittees should be interpreted as follows: (1) Subcommittees may now publish formal statements outside the IJSEM, but this is not mandatory. If a subcommittee submits a manuscript to the IJSEM, it must not be rejected on the basis that it could be published elsewhere. (2) The purpose of IJSEM review is not to override ICSP or ICSP subcommittee decisions. While the ICSP and its subcommittees are expected to operate in accordance with the ICSP Statutes, ensuring this remains the responsibility of the ICSP Executive Board and not the IJSEM.” Of the 5 voting members present, 2 voted in favor, 0 against, and 3 abstained. Thus, the proposal was not endorsed by the EB. Minute 9. Update on online submission system for validation requests M. Göker has contacted J. Kelly and N. Froude of the Microbiology Society, to discuss the option of establishing an online submission system for validation requests. He will organize a video conference with representatives of the Microbiology Society and the list editors to discuss the possibilities. Minute 10. Update on nomenclature reviews for journals other than the IJSEM W.F.A. Teo, managing editor of Current Microbiology, has contacted 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. 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, which remains open for the purpose. A. Oren has written a draft editors’ preface, and most members of the editorial board of the ICNP have already sent their comments on the draft document. Page 4 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes Minute 13. Update from IJSEM and Publications Committee C. Manaia announced that on 5th September the annual editorial board meeting of the IJSEM will be held by video conference. One of the issues to be discussed is how to handle descriptions of new species based on a single isolate. A. Oren reported that on 16th August S.-J. Liu (Beijing and Qingdao) stated during this lecture for BISMiS Live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjn3179WddM&t=3s) that based on his experience, publication of a paper in the IJSEM may take up to about a year, depending on the editors and reviewers. A. Oren responded to this in the questions and answers session following the talk. C.M. Manaia will request information from N. Froude and/or D. Georgescu about the average time between manuscript submission and publication in the IJSEM. Misunderstanding Section 10 of the ICNP A. Oren reported on a case he encountered as a nomenclature reviewer for the IJSEM. A manuscript describing a new species based on a single strain deposited in two culture collections was returned by the handling editor for revision with the request to change the status from sp. nov. to Candidatus and pro-validly publish the name, as suggested by a reviewer who referred to the new Section 10 of the ICNP. The handling editor apparently forwarded this request to the authors without checking the content of the review. A. Oren has alerted M.E. Trujillo to this case, and the manuscript was returned to the authors for another revision. The case should be further discussed during the upcoming IJSEM editorial board meeting. Minute 14. Update from the Treasurer P. Nielsen has circulated the annual financial report among the members of the EB. No comments were received thus far. The report will be submitted for approval by the EB at its next meeting. P. Nielsen has processed requests for travel expenses refunds to S.N. Venter and R.R. de la Haba. Minute 15. Update from Subcommittees on Taxonomy The following subcommittee minutes have been published: - International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes subcommittee on the taxonomy of Borrelia: minutes of the first meeting. Online Zoom meeting, 13 November 2023 Brian Stevenson and Gabriele Margos. Published: 13 August 2025 https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006872. - International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes subcommittee on the taxonomy of Borrelia: minutes of the second meeting. Online meeting, 9 January 2025 Brian Stevenson and Gabriele Margos. Published: 13 August 2025 https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006873. Page 5 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes To comply with the ICSP statutes, A. Oren invited S.L.W. On to the upcoming joint meeting of the subcommittee on the taxonomy of Halobacteria and subcommittee on the taxonomy of Halomonadaceae to be held in Oaxaca, Mexico, on 25th November. Minute 16. Update from Working Groups and Ad Hoc Committees M. Göker reported on the recent activity of the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Changes in Prokaryotic Nomenclature, including the publication by members of the working group of a paper describing the subgenera Borrelia and Borreliella. Another paper describing new subgenera will soon be published for the Mycobacteriales. Closing matters M. Göker had requested permission to use the ICSP logo in a graphical abstract for a paper on LPSN and the Type Strain Genome Server. No objections were raised. P. Nielsen noted there here had been very little activity on the ICSP LinkedIn account. All EB members are invited to make proposals how to promote the ICSP on LinkedIn. A. Oren will be unable to attend an EB meeting on 25th September. He will therefore request from E.R.B. Moore to appoint another EB member to act as secretary or to reschedule the next EB-ICSP meeting if 25th September is not suitable. The meeting was adjourned at 11.40 CEST. Minutes prepared by A. Oren, 29th August. Action points A. Oren, to forward 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, to post the minutes of the 31st July meetings of the Executive Board on the ICSP website. E.R.B. Moore, to contact ICSP members and others who may be interested to join an ad hoc subcommittee on type strain availability. A. Oren, to contact R.A. Samson to inquire about the status of Interregional Russian Microbiological Society, the Society for Applied Microbiology (Applied Microbiology International), and five Italian microbiological societies within IUMS. Page 6 of 6 International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes P. Nielsen, to send reminders to the voting members who have not yet returned the ballot form for the 2025 revision of the ICNP. C.M. Manaia, to request information from N. Froude and/or D. Georgescu about the average time between manuscript submission and publication in the IJSEM. All EB members, to submit suggestions on how to promote the ICSP on LinkedIn. A. Oren, to request from E.R.B. Moore to reschedule the next EB-ICSP meeting if 25th September is not suitable.