the taxonomist - an endangered race. a practical proposal for its survival分类学者u2014u2014一个濒临灭绝的种族。.pdfVIP

Wägele et al. Frontiers in Zoology 2011, 8:25 /content/8/1/25 DEBATE Open Access The taxonomist - an endangered race. A practical proposal for its survival 1* 2 3 4 5 Heike Wägele , Annette Klussmann-Kolb , Michael Kuhlmann , Gerhard Haszprunar , David Lindberg , André Koch1 and J Wolfgang Wägele1 Abstract Background: Taxonomy or biological systematics is the basic scientific discipline of biology, postulating hypotheses of identity and relationships, on which all other natural sciences dealing with organisms relies. However, the scientific contributions of taxonomists have been largely neglected when using species names in scientific publications by not citing the authority on which they are based. Discussion: Consequences of this neglect is reduced recognition of the importance of taxonomy, which in turn results in diminished funding, lower interest from journals in publishing taxonomic research, and a reduced number of young scientists entering the field. This has lead to the so-called taxonomic impediment at a time when biodiversity studies are of critical importance. Here we emphasize a practical and obvious solution to this dilemma. We propose that whenever a species name is used, the author(s) of the species hypothesis be included and the original literature source cited, including taxonomic revisions and identification literature - nothing more than what is done for every other hypothesis or assumption included in a scientific publication. In addition, we postulate that journals primarily publishing SM taxonomic studies should be indexed in ISI . Summary: The proposal outlined above would make visible the true