[Taxacom] Fwd: Taxonomic revision, citations

[Frank.Krell at dmns.org]

Actually, taxonomic papers are more frequently cited than commonly assumed. 
The low citation rate in commercially available databases (Web of Science, Scopus) is a result of two factors:

1. the coverage of those databases. A very low portion of taxonomic journals are covered as source journals, e.g. Science Citation Index Expanded covers only 27 entomological journals that publish taxonomical content, out of about 900 existing entomological journals that publish taxonomically relevant content (Nature 415 (2002), p. 957). Comparing the coverage of the citations of my own papers in Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar with the citations I happened to spot over the last 20 years, I found that Web of Science contained 25.7%, Scopus 14.3% and Google Scholar 24.4 % of the citations of my papers. [Krell, FT 2009. The poverty of citation databases: data mining is crucial for fair metrical evaluation of research performance. BioScience 59(1): 6-7 - if you want a pdf, let me know] Citations of my taxonomic papers were particularly underrepresented.

2. the weird distinction between literature references and authorities of taxon names. Authors of names are frequently cited, but not contained in the literature cited. This might be caused by the misunderstanding that authors of taxa are part of the names of taxa, but they are simple references to the original description, nothing more. It is a luxury in the taxonomic literature that we deliberately not give credit to authors of taxonomic names by not including those cited references in the 'literature cited'. Recently some mycologists published a plead to change this practice (Seifert, K.A., Crous, P.W. & Frisvad, J.C. 2008: Correcting the impact factors of taxonomic journals by Appropriate Citation of Taxonomy (ACT). Persoonia 20: 105; www.persoonia.org/issue/20/08.pdf).

Cheers

Frank

Dr Frank T. Krell 
Curator of Entomology 
Commissioner, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Chair, ICZN ZooBank Committee
Department of Zoology 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Boulevard 
Denver, CO 80205-5798 USA 
Frank.Krell at dmns.org 
Phone: (+1) (303) 370-8244 
Fax: (+1) (303) 331-6492 
http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Science/ScientificExperts/Biographies/krellFrank.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Roberto Keller
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:18 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] Fwd: Taxonomic revision

>
> stupid question: is there soem nice crisp definition for a 'taxonomic
> revision'.
>

How about "A basic and fundamental scientific work that will nevertheless
never be cited"

Here's a good one for entomologists:
*Bolton, B.* 2007. How to conduct large-scale taxonomic revisions in
Formicidae, pp 52-71. *In* Snelling, R. R., B. L. Fisher, and P. S. Ward
(eds) *Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): homage to E.
O. Wilson – 50 years of contributions*. Memoirs of the American
Entomological Institute, 80.

PDF available here (courtesy of antbase.org) :
http://antbase.org/ants/publications/21274/21274.pdf

-- 
Roberto A. Keller, PhD
roberto at kellerperez.com
http://roberto.kellerperez.com/
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