I’m just reposting this from the Sins news that Yarlen posted earlier:

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to announce the planned start of Beta 1 for Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy on Monday, November 23rd.

All Diplomacy pre-orders will be charged on Monday with access to the beta (which will not be fun, per our usual disclaimer).  Beta 1 will not be feature complete but will contain: New Envoy cruisers, Embassies, Diplomacy tech tree (much more to come here, only the backbone will be present), Mission Generator, the beginnings of the Pirate changes, "Faster" gameplay options and more.

To pre-order Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy, just visit the Store.