The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 28, No. 2, July 2025.

The 2024 JSE Outstanding Papers Awards given to Smithsonian botanists

Three papers co-written by Smithsonian botanists were recently recognized in the 2024 JSE Outstanding Papers Awards. The Journal of Systematics and Evolution (JSE) established the award to recognize the important, high-impact papers published in JSE in the previous two years. 

The journal’s award review committee conducted a comprehensive evaluation of articles published in 2022 based on five criteria: importance of the topic, innovative content, scientific rigor of research, practical applicability of findings, and readability of the articles, ultimately selecting 10 outstanding papers. 

The winners of the JSE Outstanding Papers Awards receive a certificate and a monetary prize.

Among the 10 award-wining papers, in first place is Soreng, et al. (2022), which presents an updated worldwide phylogenetic classification of Poaceae with 11,783 species in 12 subfamilies, 7 supertribes, 54 tribes, 5 super subtribes, 109 subtribes, and 789 accepted genera. 

Robert J. Soreng, Paul M. Peterson, Fernando O. Zuloaga, Konstantin Romaschenko, Lynn G. Clark, Jordan K. Teisher, Lynn J. Gillespie, Patricia Barberá, Cassiano A. D. Welker, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, De-Zhu Li, and Gerrit Davidse. 2022. A worldwide phylogenetic classification of the Poaceae (Gramineae) III: An update. J. Syst. Evol. 60 (3): 476-521. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12847

In third place is Gallaher, et al. (2022), which uses DNA sequence data, whole plastomes and chloroplast sequences, to reappraise the grass family’s origins, timing, and geographic spread and the factors that have promoted diversification.

Timothy J. Gallaher, Paul M. Peterson, Robert J. Soreng, Fernando O. Zuloaga, De-Zhu Li, Lynn G. Clark, Christopher D. Tyrrell, Cassiano A.D. Welker, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, and Jordan K. Teisher. 2022. Grasses through space and time: An overview of the biogeographical and macroevolutionary history of Poaceae. J. Syst. Evol. 60 (3): 522-569. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12857

In fourth place is Dong, et al. (2022), which uses phylogenomic data from genome skimming to resolve relationships within Olea and to identify molecular markers for species identification.

Wen-Pan Dong, Jia-Hui Sun, Yan-Lei Liu, Chao Xu, Yi-Heng Wang, Zhi-Li Suo, Shi-Liang Zhou, Zhi-Xiang Zhang, and Jun Wen. 2022. Phylogenomic relationships and species identification of the olive genus Olea (Oleaceae). J. Syst. Evol. 60(6): 1263-1280. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12802