Invertebrate Systematics – new developments

Invertebrate Systematics enjoyed another successful year in 2011, not only by continuing to publish significant contributions but also by implementing several changes that directly benefit authors.In addition to maintaining its broad international readership and authorship, the journal saw a dramatic increase in its impact factor to 2.492reflecting the high quality of its content.Throughout the year, the journal published manuscripts that used a broad array of methodological approaches and described a diverse range of groups, including arachnids (Acari, Araneae and Opiliones), hexapods (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Plecoptera, Psocodea and Collembola) and crustaceans (Decapoda and Amphipoda).In addition, there were several manuscripts on less well studied groups such as annelids, bryozoans, cnidarians, molluscs, platyhelminths and sponges.The journal also continued its series of Perspective articles, formerly called Viewpoints, which give authors the freedom to present thought-provoking ideas, develop novel hypotheses, and speculate on controversial topics.In 'Protecting the innocent: studying short-range endemic taxa enhances conservation outcomes ', Harvey et al. (2011) examine the systematics of terrestrial and freshwater groups that have very restricted distributions, and their importance in conservation biology and environmental assessment.In several respects, this paper provides new perspectives on an earlier paper by Harvey (2002a), 'Short-range endemism among the Australian fauna: some examples from non-marine environments', which is the journal's most-read article and the feature paper for the Invertebrate Systematics Special Issue on Short-range Endemism in the Australian Biota (Vol.16, No. 4, 2002).In the second Perspective in 2011, 'A collaborative, integrated and electronic future for taxonomy ', Norman Johnson (2011) challenges traditional approaches to taxonomy and proposes that the barriers to greater efficiency and throughput in taxonomic projects are primarily social rather than technological, and that increased collaboration among taxonomic specialists can significantly shorten the timeline and add increased rigor.This paper also proposes that taxonomy should fully embrace electronic media and informatics tools, and that this requires the development and widespread implementation of community data standards.Like all Perspectives in the journal, these two articles are freely available online.Because Invertebrate Systematics relies on authors to submit their best work, we made several changes to facilitate this process.We implemented a new manuscript submission and tracking system, ScholarOne, which is widely used in scholarly publishing; in addition to making the submission process easier for authors, we expect the new system to help us reduce handling times and improve our reporting capabilities.Perhaps more importantly for authors, Invertebrate Systematics has removed all page charges.As always, the journal provides authors with rigorous and rapid peer review, Open Access options and free colour online and in PDFs.