By Marija Purgar | August 22, 2026
Five years ago, SORTEE began with a simple but ambitious idea: to bring together researchers who believed ecology and evolutionary biology could become more open, more reliable, and more transparent.
On 29 July 2026, we had the pleasure of celebrating just how far that idea has come.
Members from around the world joined our 5th Birthday Virtual Social, featuring Prof. Tim Parker, SORTEE’s first President. Tim shared the story of how the society came to life, reflected on what we’ve achieved together over the past five years, and offered his hopes for the future. We were also fortunate to celebrate in person with colleagues at the Collaboration for Open Science and Synthesis in Ecology and Evolution (COSSEE) led by Prof. Shinichi Nakagawa, one of SORTEE & EcoEvoRxiv founding members, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
The afternoon was filled with inspiring discussions, plenty of laughter, and, of course, a birthday cake.
Prof. Tim Parker, Marija Purgar (President), Losia Lagisz (President-Elect), Prof. Shinichi Nakagawa, Stephanie Flaman (Conference Committee Chair)
Where It All Began
During the conversation, Tim took us back to the earliest days of what would eventually become SORTEE.
The story began more than a decade ago. Around 2014, Tim and Shinichi started asking a question that many researchers were quietly asking themselves:
How can we make ecology and evolutionary biology more reliable?
Those early conversations soon expanded to include journal editors and colleagues who shared similar concerns about research transparency, reproducibility, and scientific culture. By 2015, efforts were already underway to encourage journals to adopt open science practices. Although some embraced these ideas, it became increasingly clear that creating lasting change required more than new policies, it required building a community.
Over the following years, discussions continued through conferences, workshops, online groups, and countless conversations with researchers who shared the same vision.
After several years of planning, and many volunteer hours later, SORTEE was officially founded in late 2020 by a group of 22 founding members.
Looking back, Tim explained that one of his biggest motivations was creating a home for researchers who often felt isolated.
Many cared deeply about improving scientific practice but felt like they were the only person in their department thinking about reproducibility, transparency, or open science. SORTEE was created to bring those people together, to exchange ideas, support one another, and build a community capable of driving meaningful change.
After the virtual social, Shinichi shared his reflection on the chance conversation in a Dunedin, NZ botanic garden that helped set SORTEE in motion. I highly recommend reading it. It is a wonderful reminder that the biggest changes in science often begin with simple conversations. And you never know when this conversation will happen, so appreciate every moment! Ichigo ichie (一期一会)!
Five Years of Building a Community
Listening to Tim reflect on those early conversations made it especially meaningful to look at the community we have today.
In just five years, SORTEE has grown from a small network of like-minded researchers into a truly international grassroots society. Today, our membership exceeds 500 people per year, with members coming from more than 50 countries, and our activities are powered by over 70 volunteers who generously contribute their time, expertise, and enthusiasm through SORTEE’s committees and Senior Advisory Board. One of SORTEE’s greatest strengths continues to be its early-career researchers, who make up much of our leadership.
Our volunteers organize an annual virtual conference that brings together participants across every time zone, run monthly Code Club and workshop & webinar series, develop educational materials, write blogs and newsletters, lead collaborative meta-research projects, and advocate for better research practices across ecology and evolutionary biology, e.g., The SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Perhaps one of our best-known contributions is EcoEvoRxiv, a community-governed preprint server in ecology and evolution.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate how a volunteer-driven society can help shape research culture through collaboration, education, and advocacy.
Looking Back
When asked whether today’s SORTEE reflects the vision he originally had, Tim admitted he had probably been overly optimistic about how quickly scientific culture could change.
But he also shared that SORTEE has exceeded his expectations.
Among the achievements he highlighted were the incredible dedication of volunteers, the rapid success of SORTEE’s first virtual conference, which attracted more than 1,000 registrations only six months after the official founding date, and the growing influence SORTEE has had through initiatives such as supporting journal data editors and promoting better research practices.
Perhaps most rewarding, Tim said, has been watching new generations of volunteers step into leadership and continue building the society far beyond what its founders could have achieved alone.
Celebrating EcoEvoRxiv
We also looked back on the remarkable journey of EcoEvoRxiv, one of SORTEE’s flagship initiatives. Tim shared that when Shinichi first proposed the idea of a community-governed preprint server, he wasn’t entirely convinced it would grow into the success it is today. That prompted us to invite Shinichi to reflect on how EcoEvoRxiv came to life and the journey it has taken over the past several years.
Shinichi explained that EcoEvoRxiv was founded with a simple goal: to support open science in ecology and evolution by providing a community-driven home for preprints. As submissions rapidly increased, so did the challenges of sustaining the platform. Thanks to the support of the broader open science community, including the Center for Open Science (COS), Peer Community In (PCI), and the California Digital Library, EcoEvoRxiv’s current host, and of course – our volunteers, the platform has continued to thrive.
Today, EcoEvoRxiv hosts more than 3,500 preprints and receives thousands of downloads every month, serving researchers across ecology, evolution, and related disciplines.
Shinichi described EcoEvoRxiv as one of his proudest academic achievements and thanked everyone who contributed.
It was inspiring to hear how an idea born from a shared commitment to open science has grown into a globally used resource, thanks to the dedication, collaboration, and generosity of so many people along the way.
Looking Ahead
As the conversation turned from the past to the future, Tim shared where he believes SORTEE can make the greatest difference over the next five years.
Tim sees one of the society’s greatest opportunities in continuing to strengthen meta-research, by generating evidence on which policies, practices, and advocacy efforts are most effective at improving the quality, transparency, and reliability of science.
Another important priority is continuing to grow the community.
SORTEE has become a welcoming home for early-career researchers, and Tim believes this should remain one of the society’s greatest strengths. At the same time, he encouraged more senior researchers to become actively involved, using the flexibility and influence that often comes with established careers to help shape a more reliable scientific culture.
His advice to early-career researchers was both practical and encouraging.
Although conducting rigorous, transparent research can sometimes feel slower or more demanding, these practices ultimately strengthen both science and researchers’ careers. Registered Reports, in particular, offer valuable opportunities to publish rigorous work while reducing publication bias.
An Engaging Community Discussion
The audience questions sparked conversations about replication studies, pre-registration, robustness checks, partnerships, and the future of scientific publishing. The discussion also explored how ecology and evolutionary biology can continue learning from other disciplines while recognising that meaningful cultural change requires evidence, people and patience.
One participant noticed that, throughout the discussion, Tim seemed to place particular emphasis on the “Reliable” in SORTEE’s name and asked whether there was a reason for that.
Tim explained that while openness and transparency are fundamental, his own scientific journey has always been motivated by a desire to make research more reliable. Early in his career, difficulties reproducing published findings led him to question how scientific evidence is generated and communicated, questions that ultimately helped inspire SORTEE itself.
Following the discussion, we held a SORTEE T-shirt raffle. Congratulations to Luciano De Benedictis, who won the online raffle, and Hao Qin, our in-person winner!
With the raffle wrapped up, everyone gathered for lunch, birthday cake, and plenty of great conversations.
Thank You
Five years ago, SORTEE began as an idea shared by a small group of researchers who believed we could do better. Today, it is a thriving international community driven by volunteers who generously give their time, expertise, and enthusiasm to improve research culture in ecology and evolutionary biology.
As we celebrate five years of SORTEE, I’m reminded that our greatest achievement isn’t any single conference, publication, workshop, or initiative.
It’s the people.
It’s the volunteers who dedicate countless hours behind the scenes. It’s the committee members who transform ideas into action. It’s the chapter leaders who build local communities, the researchers who share their expertise, the students asking thoughtful questions, and the members who continue to believe that we can make science better together.
On behalf of the SORTEE Board, thank you to Prof. Tim Parker for taking us back to where it all began, to Prof. Shinichi Nakagawa for sharing the inspiring journey of EcoEvoRxiv.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to SORTEE’s journey so far, our founders, past and present leadership, volunteers, Senior Advisory Board, supporters and partners, and members around the world.
As President, it has been a privilege to celebrate this milestone alongside so many of you.
Here’s to the next five years of learning from one another, supporting one another, and continuing to make ecology and evolutionary biology more open, reliable, and transparent.
Happy 5th Birthday, SORTEE! 💚
