Latin

[Gregory Zolnerowich]

I'm an entomologist who has been following this Latin thread. Perhaps the
proper question should be, "Does the Latin requirement add any real value
to the paper?".

>From what I've seen of the thread, many botanists include only the most
cursory bit of Latin because they have to. Take the Latin portions from
several different papers and compare them. What is their practical aspect?
Are they so sparse as to be useless? If so, why include them?

I don't buy the "it internationalizes" the paper argument. I'm certainly
not advocating publishing in any particular language, but I do note that
English is the international language of air traffic controllers around the
world. They don't seem to be engaged in soul-searching discussions of
whether English is or is not spoken by a certain percentage of the world's
population or if it will be the languague used 100 years from now.

Cheers,

Greg Z.

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Dr. Gregory Zolnerowich                 gzolner at acs.tamu.edu
Dept. of Entomology                     409-847-9084 phone
Heep Center                             409-845-6305 fax
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-2475
USA
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