[Taxacom] Best usage - spp (no period) or spp.?

[Barry Roth]

I'm mildly surprised no one who is or has been a biological editor has spoken up on this.  When I was the editor-in-chief of a biological journal -- print media, full text, prose -- I would have insisted (and probably did, if it ever came up) on the presence of a period.  "Spp." is an abbreviation, not an acronym or a symbol (as in stock ticker symbols --CSCO, GM) and the governing rule in such cases is to add the dot.  In another context, one or another databasing lingo, maybe not so.  But I would hope that when output from such a system has to be converted to prose readable by ordinary folk, the dots would appear.
 
Full stop.

From: "Tony.Rees at csiro.au" <Tony.Rees at csiro.au>
To: gread at actrix.gen.nz 
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
Sent: Monday, October 8, 2012 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Best usage - spp (no period) or spp.?

Hi Geoff,