The taxonomist - an endangered race. A practical proposal for its survival

Abstract

BackgroundTaxonomy 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.DiscussionConsequences 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 taxonomic studies should be indexed in ISISM.SummaryThe proposal outlined above would make visible the true contribution of taxonomists within the scientific community, and would provide a more accurate assessment for funding agencies impact and importance of taxonomy, and help in the recruitment of young scientists into the field, thus helping to alleviate the taxonomic impediment. In addition, it would also make much of the biological literature more robust by reducing or alleviating taxonomic uncertainty.

Avances en la taxonomía de los Anomalini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae) de Costa Rica

“…Hace más de 20 años que el mundo académico es consciente de la brecha entre la urgencia para conocer la biodiversidad del planeta (con un 90% estimado de especies todavía desconocidas [Wägele et al, 2011]) y la escasez de taxónomos para identificar y describir estas especies. La Convention on Biological Diversity realizada en 1995 bautizó este problema como "taxonomic impediment" (Evenhuis, 2007).…”

“…Entre las causas reconocidas de la escasez de taxó-nomos está la dificultad para obtener financiación para investigaciones de taxonomía, la resistencia que encuentran los taxónomos a la hora de publicar sus investigaciones en revistas de impacto, la escasa estima de sus estudios por parte de los colegas, que ven en la taxonomía un trabajo más bien burocrá-tico, sin desafíos intelectuales (Wägele et al, 2011).…”

“…El primer paso es un cambio en la concepción del mundo científico hacia la taxonomía. La taxonomía es la base para las otras disciplinas biológicas (Wägele et al 2011); y debe verse como "big science" (Wheeler et al, 2004).…”

Plant taxonomic research in Bangladesh (1972-2012): A critical review

“…Taxonomy journals, for example, receive relatively lower Impact Factors, which have obvious career implications (Lee, 2000;Valdecasas et al, 2000;Ebach et al, 2011;Wägele et al, 2011). To increase the impact of taxonomy papers, it was proposed that whenever a species name is used, the author(s) of the species should be included and the original literature source should be cited (Werner, 2006;Wägele et al, 2011).…”

A collaborative, integrated and electronic future for taxonomy

“…Both of these functions are more effectively achieved through the use of unique identifiers to the taxonomic concepts, identifiers that when resolved lead to a complete citation or, even better, to a copy of the publication itself. Wägele et al (2011) have recently suggested that the publications in which taxa are originally described be formally included in the literature cited sections of publications that use scientific names. The sentiment underlying the proposal is laudable.…”