Setting scientific names at all taxonomic ranks in italics facilitates their quick recognition in scientific papers
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IMA Fungus
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Setting scientific names at all taxonomic ranks in italics facilitates their quick recognition in scientific papers Marco Thines1,2* , Takayuki Aoki3, Pedro W. Crous4, Kevin D. Hyde5, Robert Lücking6, Elaine Malosso7, Tom W. May8, Andrew N. Miller9, Scott A. Redhead10, Andrey M. Yurkov11 and David L. Hawksworth12,13,14 Abstract It is common practice in scientific journals to print genus and species names in italics. This is not only historical as species names were traditionally derived from Greek or Latin. Importantly, it also facilitates the rapid recognition of genus and species names when skimming through manuscripts. However, names above the genus level are not always italicized, except in some journals which have adopted this practice for all scientific names. Since scientific names treated under the various Codes of nomenclature are without exception treated as Latin, there is no reason why names above genus level should be handled differently, particularly as higher taxon names are becoming increasingly relevant in systematic and evolutionary studies and their italicization would aid the unambiguous recognition of formal scientific names distinguishing them from colloquial names. Several leading mycological and botanical journals have already adopted italics for names of all taxa regardless of rank over recent decades, as is the practice in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, and we hereby recommend that this practice be taken up broadly in scientific journals and textbooks. Keywords: Format of names of taxa, Italics, Publication standards, Scientific names, Scientific practice
BACKGROUND The International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF) is an international body devoted to its mission of promoting fungal taxonomy by facilitating the development of high scientific standards (Sigler and Hawksworth 1987; Seifert and Rossman 2010; Hawksworth 2015). The ICTF occasionally provides recommendations on publication and scientific standards related to fungal taxonomy, to promote them in the scientific community. Here, we encourage journals to adopt italics for formal scientific names at all ranks to facilitate rapid and unambiguous recognition of formal scientific * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Goethe University, Institute of Ecology Evolution and Diversity, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60439 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 2 Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
names governed under nomenclatural Codes within publications, as compared to informal names such as those sometimes used to differentiate clades. For more than a century it has been common practice in most scientific journals to italicize scientific genus and species names, since regardless of their etymology, these names are Latinised (ICNafp Art. 23; Turland et al
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