Founded in 1985, the IFCS is a federation of national, regional, and linguistically-based classification societies. It is a non-profit, non-political scientific organization, whose aims are to further classification research. Amongst other activities, the IFCS organises a biennial conference, publishes a newsletter, and supports the Journal of Classification (JoC) and the journal Advances in Data Analysis and Classification (ADAC).

Hans-Hermann Bock has written a history of the IFCS (PDF file, approx. 9 megabytes). Further information about the activities of the federation can be obtained in its governance documents, or by contacting the IFCS Secretary.

IFCS Flyer(2020) (PDF file, approx. 250KB)

Information on how to become a member society is in the member societies area.

The Report of the President from the 2019 IFCS Council meeting, which was held in Thessaloniki, is available here.

The 19th biennial meeting of the Federation, IFCS 2026, will take place in Milan, Italy, 14-16 July 2026.

Conference website: https://ifcs2026.unimib.it

IFCS2026 Flyer: ifcs2026_flyer.pdf

Details, including information about applications and awards related to IFCS 2026, are available on the conference website.