Tag: IAVS

Guest blog post by Jürgen Dengler, Erwin Bergmeier and Urban Šilc

We are pleased to announce the Special Collection on the vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula in IAVS’ gold open access journal Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS).

This Special Collection is launched in conjunction with the annual conferences of two IAVS Working Groups in 2026, namely the 21^st Eurasian Grassland Conference of the EDGG in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the 34th Conference of the European Vegetation Survey (EVS), in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Within Europe, the vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula is particularly diverse yet understudied in terms of composition, variation and range. With this Special Collection, we thus want to advance the knowledge on the Balkan vegetation, take a fresh look both within and beyond national borders and contribute to an improvement of the “EuroVegChecklist” as the common syntaxonomic backbone of the continent. Following VCS’s scope, contributions either need to develop or to apply a vegetation classification framework of any type. For example, this can be based on a phytosociological classification system, habitat types, or synusiae. Studies on any kind of vegetation from the coasts to the highest mountains, from natural through semi-natural to anthropogenic are welcome.

We envisage particularly the following types of contributions:

Revisions of syntaxa (classes, orders, alliances…) at the national or supranational level
Vegetation monographs of a certain region
Synthetic overviews (category Review and Synthesis) of all syntaxa of a country or other larger regions
Nomenclatural proposals related to Balkan syntaxa
Habitat typologies and their application
Long and Short Database Reports
Perspectives on how to harmonize and how to utilize syntaxonomic knowledge

Apart from Research Papers, also Reviews and Syntheses and Forum Papers as well as Long Database Reports and Nomenclatural Proposals are welcome. We hope to see submissions from the Balkan countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey-in-Europe), while syntheses across multiple countries are particularly welcome. Please consult the author guidelines whose formal requirements also apply to the Special Collection.

Editors: Jürgen Dengler (Switzerland), Erwin Bergmeier (Germany) and Urban Šilc (Slovenia); in case of a high number of submissions, one or two additional guest editors might be appointed.

Procedure and deadlines:

Until 31 October 2026: Please submit your (preliminary) abstract online at: https://forms.gle/gxofv8FuZQkqFmeK7. The abstract must follow the VCS Author Guidelines.
Until 30 November 2026: The Guest Editors will evaluate the abstracts and inform the authors which manuscripts are invited for submission.
Until 30 May 2027: Invited manuscripts can be submitted at: https://vcs.pensoft.net/
Spring 2028: The Special Collection will be completed with a synthesizing editorial by the Guest Editor team.

Please note that VCS is a gold open access journal where authors are normally required to pay article processing charges (APCs). First authors who are IAVS members receive 50% or 75% discount on regular APCs. If you are an IAVS member but cannot afford the reduced APCs (e.g. because your university does not provide APC funds), you can – after invitation and prior to submission – apply to IAVS’ Global Sponsorship Committee (GSC) for a complete waiver of the APCs, i.e. publishing free of charge. If interested, please get into contact with the chair of the Guest Editors.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and hope that you will join us in making this Special Collection a valuable resource for the IAVS community.

Follow Vegetation Classification and Survey on Facebook and Bluesky to stay up to date on the journal’s latest developments. Or subscribe to the journal’s newsletter via the homepage.

This summer, Gijón, Spain played host to the 68th Annual Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), welcoming 465 participants from 49 countries for five extraordinary days under the theme “Understanding Ecosystems Through Vegetation.“

Held from 22-26 June 2026, the symposium brought together researchers working across the full spectrum of the field, from Earth Observation and vegetation databases to plant community interactions, seed regeneration, and long-term vegetation dynamics. From opening keynotes to the closing ceremony, the energy, curiosity, and collegiality of our community made this one for the books.

A Packed Scientific Programme

The opening ceremony of the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.
Pensoft’s stand at the 68th Annual Symposium.
Pensoft’s stand at the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.

Alongside the core symposium topics, this year’s programme featured seven special sessions on some of the field’s most pressing questions, including bringing different vegetation classification approaches together, plant biogeography and macroecology, scaling laws in vegetation ecology, belowground functional ecology and more.

Moreover, the session themed “Bringing the different vegetation classification approaches together”, sponsored by the IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group, will be used as a basis for assembling a Special Collection in the open-access journal Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS).

Two of VCS’ Editors-in-Chief also took the stage this year: Prof. Jürgen Dengler shared a presentation called “Plant invasions in grasslands of Switzerland: invaders, spatial patterns and effects on biodiversity”.

While Dr. Idoia Biurrun presented “The power of scale: uncovering biodiversity patterns and environmental drivers in riparian forests”.

Spotlight On Our Vegetation Science Journals

Speaking of that journal, we’ve been proud collaborators with IAVS since 2020, when we launched Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS) together as the association’s newest journal. At this year’s symposium, we had the chance to showcase both VCS and our other flagship vegetation title, Vegetation Ecology and Diversity (VED), to the community.

Vegetation Classification and Survey promotional materials from the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.

Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS) is an international, peer-reviewed, online journal on plant community ecology, published on behalf of IAVS. It is devoted to vegetation survey and classification at any organisational and spatial scale, welcoming original papers that develop new vegetation typologies as well as applied studies, from vegetation mapping and ecosystem modelling to nature conservation and land-use management.

Five years after launch, VCS is boasting a 2025 Scopus CiteScore of 4.7 (up from 3.6 the year before), and the journal is now ranked Q1 across all the categories in which it is indexed.

Vegetation Ecology and Diversity promotional materials from the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.

Vegetation Ecology and Diversity (VED) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal owned by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science (SISV). It publishes original research covering all aspects of vegetation, from plant communities to landscapes, with a particular focus on plant community ecology and vegetation surveys used to advance ecological models, classify vegetation, map ecosystems, and monitor and conserve European habitats.

A Productive Conversation About VCS’s Future

Pensoft’s team presenting during the Editorial Meeting at the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.
Editorial meeting at the 68th IAVS Symposium.
Editorial Meeting at IAVS 2026.

For Pensoft, one of the standout moments of the symposium was the VCS editorial meeting, where we had the chance to sit down with members of the journal’s editorial board for a candid and productive discussion about Vegetation Classification and Survey‘s current position and its prospects for future growth. It was a valuable opportunity to hear directly from the people shaping the journal’s direction and to plan the next steps together.

Pensoft's Head of Marketing, Sales and Events with Susan WiserP resident of IAVS during the 68th Annual Symposium. — Pensoft’s Head of Marketing, Sales and Events with Susan WiserP resident of IAVS during the 68th Annual Symposium.

During the symposium, Pensoft’s stand was visited by Susan Wiser, President of IAVS, giving our on-site team the chance to discuss our ongoing publishing collaboration.

Our Diverse Journal Portfolio On Display

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Beyond VCS and VED, our stand featured a wide range of open-access, peer-reviewed journals from our vegetation science and biodiversity portfolio – spanning plant-focused scientific outlets like Plant Ecology and Evolution, Italian Botanist, and PhytoKeys to conservation and ecosystem titles such as Nature Conservation, One Ecosystem, NeoBiota, Frontiers of Biogeography, and Neotropical Biology and Conservation. On display were also Pensoft’s fungi-focused journals: IMA Fungus and MycoKeys.

Some of the journal materials on display wtih Denitsa Peneva’s beautiful illustrations.
Vegetation Classification and Survey along with Check List and Neotropical Biology and Conservation promotional materials at IAVS 2026.
Biodiversity Data Journal, IMA Fungus and MycoKeys on focus wtih Denitsa Peneva’s beautiful illustrations.
Agricultural and Environmental Modelling flyer in front of the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium banner.
Frontiers of Biogeography in focus, alongside stickers illustrated by Denitsa Peneva.
Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, Individual-Based Ecology and Nature Conservation brochures in focus at IAVS 2026.

Аttendees also stopped by to explore and learn more about Pensoft’s more specialised outlets such as Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, Biodiversity Data Journal, Individual-Based Ecology and the recently relaunched Agricultural and Environmental Modelling as well as Check List, all of which sparked great conversations at the stand.

Our recently launched diamond open-access journal, Advances in Pollinator Research, also drew plenty of interest.

Celebrating The Next Generation Of Vegetation Scientists

Celia González-López receiving the Young Scientist Award at the 68th IAVS Annual Symposium.

Оne of the many highlights that week was seeing the Young Scientist Award go to Celia González-López, recognising her outstanding early-career contributions to the field. Curiously, González-López is among the co-authors of a recent paper in Natural History Collections and Museomics, describing a workflow for creating 3D-printed insect replicas to make museum collections more accessible for education and outreach.

Looking Ahead

IAVS group photo — Group photo at the end of the conference. Credit to IAVS.

It was a great pleasure to become part of the IAVS community, and we look forward to an even stronger collaboration and many productive achievements together in the years to come.

Save the date: the 69th IAVS Annual Symposium will be held in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana, from 12-16 July 2027.

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