TY - JOUR

T1 - Protecting stable biological nomenclatural systems enables universal communication: A collective international appeal

AU - Jiménez-Mejías, Pedro

AU - Manzano, Saúl

AU - Gowda, Vinita

AU - Krell, Frank-Thorsten

AU - 1558 additional coauthors

AU - Wüster, Wolfgang

PY - 2024/7

Y1 - 2024/7

N2 - The fundamental value of universal nomenclatural systems in biology is that they enable unambiguous scientific communication. However, the stability of these systems is threatened by recent discussions asking for a fairer nomenclature, raising the possibility of bulk revision processes for “inappropriate” names. It is evident that such proposals come from very deep feelings, but we show howthey can irreparably damage the foundation of biological communication and, in turn, the sciences that depend on it. There are four essential consequences of objective codes of nomenclature: universality,stability,neutrality,and transculturality.These codes provide fair and impartial guides to the principles governing biological nomenclature and allow unambiguous universal communication in biology.Accordingly,no subjective proposals should be allowed to undermine them.

AB - The fundamental value of universal nomenclatural systems in biology is that they enable unambiguous scientific communication. However, the stability of these systems is threatened by recent discussions asking for a fairer nomenclature, raising the possibility of bulk revision processes for “inappropriate” names. It is evident that such proposals come from very deep feelings, but we show howthey can irreparably damage the foundation of biological communication and, in turn, the sciences that depend on it. There are four essential consequences of objective codes of nomenclature: universality,stability,neutrality,and transculturality.These codes provide fair and impartial guides to the principles governing biological nomenclature and allow unambiguous universal communication in biology.Accordingly,no subjective proposals should be allowed to undermine them.

KW - Taxonomy

KW - nomenclatural stability

KW - Nomenclature

KW - International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

U2 - 10.1093/biosci/biae043

DO - 10.1093/biosci/biae043

M3 - Article

C2 - 39156614

VL - 74

SP - 467

EP - 472

JO - BioScience

JF - BioScience

SN - 1525-3244

IS - 7

ER -