Abstract
In 1998, publication of the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology (IJSB) passed from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) to the Society for General Microbiology (SGM). In that year, 181 papers were published in the journal, and some 60 % of those papers concerned the description of new taxa, the emendation of descriptions or the proposal of taxonomic rearrangements. The Editorial Board of the journal consisted of six members.