Taxacom: Fwd: Two or more authors: language

Wed Aug 6 07:21:50 CDT 2025

In zoological nomenclature, author citation and year of publication do not form part of the name of a taxon and their citation is optional, although customary.

The zoo-Code has this Recommendation 51C. Citation of multiple authors. When three or more joint authors have been responsible for a name, then the citation of the name of the authors may be expressed by use of the term "et al." following the name of the first author [...]. Note that this is not a requirement. The choice of "[first author] et al." is based on the fact that this is the predominant practice in the taxonomic literature.

The zoo-Code uses "&" in all Examples and Recommendations where situations with only two authors of a scientific name occur.

/Thomas Pape

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Peter Phillipson via Taxacom
Sent: 6. august 2025 13:36
To: Taxacom (taxacom at lists.ku.edu) <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>; Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com>; Mary Barkworth <Mary.Barkworth at usu.edu>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Fwd: Two or more authors: language

An AI response to a query I just made after reading this exchange provided an interesting answer, but I am not suggesting that we should blindly follow what a machine suggests!

- I copy and paste verbatim:

Botanical Nomenclature: Governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN).
Zoological Nomenclature: Governed by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Both codes emphasize stability and clarity, and et al. remains the accepted abbreviation when citing multiple authors. The ICZN, for instance, does not allow changes like replacing et al. with & al. in formal naming.
Unfortunately, there are no published quantitative statistics comparing the frequency of "et al." vs "& al." or other variants in botanical or zoological literature. However, here are some qualitative observations:

  *   Academic Journals and Databases (e.g., ZooBank, IPNI, Tropicos) overwhelmingly use et al. in author citations.
  *   "& al." is more likely to appear in:
     *   Informal writing or older texts
     *   Non-standardized databases or OCR-scanned documents
  *   Trend Toward Simplification: In digital platforms and casual contexts, there's a mild tendency to drop Latin formalism, but this hasn't penetrated formal nomenclature.

________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Mary Barkworth via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: 06 August 2025 12:23 PM
To: Taxacom (taxacom at lists.ku.edu) <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>; Tony Rees <tonyrees49 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Fwd: Two or more authors: language

I suspect many botanists are also moving to using "&". It is used by IPNI, Plants of the World Online, and World Flora Online. It is like Leguminosae and Fabaceae. They are equally acceptable, but today Fabaceae is the more frequently encountered in online resources.

________________________________
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Tony Rees via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 2:25 AM
To: Taxacom (taxacom at lists.ku.edu) <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Subject: Taxacom: Fwd: Two or more authors: language

My feeling (which I believe is correct) is that botanical tradition is to use a bit more Latin than zoological tradition (these days). So a botanical work is more likely to say (e.g.) Smith et Jones, 1905, while a zoological work would use Smith & Jones, 1905. For my compendium, which spans both botanical and zoological names (the latter outnumber the former by around 4:1), I standardise everything to a single format, using "&" and not "et"
to link names together ("et al." being an exception).

Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
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On Wed, 6 Aug 2025 at 17:08, Mikhail Daneliya via Taxacom < taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> In cases when there are two or more authors for a taxon I have been 
> using "et" instead of common "&" or "and" to harmonize the language. 
> For example, Paramblyops rostrata Holt et Tattersall, 1905, instead of 
> Paramblyops rostrata Holt & Tattersall, 1905.
> What do you think?
> Should it be used in the same format, like it was used originally? Or 
> can it be freely modified? Can it be used for newly names?
>
> I hope I made it clear.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Mikhail Daneliya
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