Organisms Diversity & Evolution is published by the Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik (GfBS) and the Elsevier GmbH. The journal comprises a printed periodical and an Electronic Supplement on the world wide web. It is devoted to the understanding of organismal diversity and addresses an international audience. Manuscripts must be written in English.

All manuscripts submitted for the printed journal or Electronic Supplement will be subjected to critical peer review.

The journal accepts four kinds of papers:

• Original, high-quality research papers of systematic, phylogenetic or evolutionary content on any organismal groups, recent or fossil. Papers emphasizing general aspects of systematic, phylogenetic and evolutionary research, having a widely integrative approach, or dealing with interorganismal relationships are preferred. Taxonomic descriptions are accepted as parts of manuscripts with information of general interest. Information supplementing the contents of printed papers (e.g. sequence alignments, colour plates, 3D-illustrations, videos) can be published in electronic form.
• Review papers.
• Purely taxonomic papers to be published in the Electronic Supplement. Corresponding extended abstracts in the printed journal summarize the results and constitute formal publication of nomenclatural acts, etc.
• Papers for a "Forum" section reserved for discussion of issues relevant to biological systematics and related science politics.