The 5th SORTEE conference took place online on 15 and 16 October 2025. Thank you for joining us! Read our blog posts to catch up on everything that happened.

The next SORTEE conference is happening in 2026 — we hope to see you there!

Stay updated on the SORTEE conference by joining our mailing list at https://sortee-conference.myflodesk.com/subscribe. We send a maximum of 8 emails a year.

About SORTEE conferences

A SORTEE conference is an online forum featuring many interactive sessions, all about making research in fields related to ecology and evolutionary biology more open, transparent and reliable. At a SORTEE conference, participants:

• Discuss current research practices / tools or develop new ones during unconferences;
• Launch collaborative projects with clear goals — such as data analysis, paper or protocol writing, software development, or advocacy — during hackathons;
• Learn about practical tools and practices during workshops and introductions to open science;
• Get inspired during plenary talks.

Participants connect with a strong community of researchers from around the world and across career stages. Everyone leaves feeling inspired, motivated, and empowered to adopt open science in their own work and to promote it within their wider communities.

Take a look at the SORTEE 2025 conference blog posts to get a clearer idea of what a SORTEE conference is all about. You can also find summaries of past conferences at https://www.sortee.org/past.

SORTEE conferences’ accessibility

SORTEE conferences are held online via Zoom. To attend a SORTEE conference, you will need a computer with a reliable internet connection in a quiet space, preferably with a webcam. The online Zoom format was chosen to make the conference accessible to more people, since travel can be expensive or impossible for some. Registration is free for SORTEE members and membership itself may be free depending on your status (join at https://www.sortee.org/join).

Joining from Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania or Asia? SORTEE conferences run for over 24 hours to accommodate all time zones, so there will be interesting sessions in yours.

Worried about understanding English? The conference is fully transcribed, allowing you to read automatic transcripts in real time. At the 2025 SORTEE conference, it was even possible to translate the transcript into your own language instantly. We encourage everyone to participate, regardless of their English proficiency or social confidence. If participants want to contribute or ask a question, they have to raise their hand on Zoom (session facilitators will give them the floor in turn) or write in the chat (all chat comments are addressed and read aloud by the session facilitator). SORTEE has chosen not to record sessions (except for the plenary talk), as recordings can sometimes discourage people from speaking freely.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding accessibility and diversity at SORTEE conferences, or if you face any barriers to attending, please contact us at conference@sortee.org or complete this anonymous accessibility form. Responses are shared only with the SORTEE conference committee and board of directors.