abbreviations for author names

[Carlos Sarmiento]

Author and year after the mane are quite valuable.

These help to find out descriptions of not only
homonyms but names without any reference in any review
of the group under study. If the genus has not been
reviewed descriptions can be dispersed in the
literature and in some lists without any additional
information and the taxonomists is forced to comb the
entire literature searching for clues where that name
comes from. Author and year will provide a faster way
to find more information.

In fact the code recomends to include year and
author(s) in full in any paper at least the first time
the name is written. Author abbreviations are not
standardized in zoology and this may create confusion.


For multiauthored names the code recomends to use "et
al." only if the full names of the authors are
indicated the firatr time in the paper.

--- "Spies, Martin"
<spies at ZI.BIOLOGIE.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE> wrote:

> Apologies for cross-posting.
>
> Christian Thompson wrote:
>
> >the need for author names. These, despite what some
> people think are NOT part of scientific names in
> Zoology.
> >
> Right as far as ICZN-regulated nomenclature is
> concerned, but - little
> as supporters of the Code may like it - this cannot
> simply be equated
> with right in all of zoology.
>
> >No real information value.
> >
> Just plain wrong, as the previous replies in this
> thread have shown.
>
> Do you seriously want to propagate that every "NEW"
> name label in
> pre-2000 publications carries real information
> value, but authorship
> (and date) data don't?
> (TAXACOM readers not subscribed to the ICZN
> discussion list: The first
> part of the preceding sentence refers to claims Dr.
> Thompson made on the
> ICZN list.)
>
> I must say that I don't find it conducive to the
> stability of
> nomenclature or to greater acceptance for
> nomenclature as an essential
> element of biological science if supposed supporters
> of those causes
> drift off into parallel or even diverging universes
> like this, and may
> be even 'sell' such personal opinion as official
> gospel to the less
> informed and unsuspecting public.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> --
> Martin Spies
> c/o Zoologische Staatssammlung Muenchen
> Germany
>


Carlos E. Sarmiento-M.
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
A. A. 52656, Bogota, Colombia

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