Taxonomic Information

All scientific names used within manuscripts to be published in Ethnobotany Research and Applications must be checked for accuracy. The following is a normal set of steps that may be used and resources that are recommended for validating the data.

1. Verify binomial combinations. Using a variety of on-line and text resources (see list below), each name provided is checked for spelling and that the combination of genus and species has been validly published and recognized. The author who published the name is also verified and the correct abbreviation used per (indicate book of name abbreviations).
2. Verify that the binomial is current. Using a variety of on-line and text resources (see list below), each name provided is checked for to make sure that it is the current name accepted for the taxa in question. Current combinations are inserted in place of former regardless of tradition of use, familiarity, etc.
3. Verify classification. The family or other levels of recognized classification circumscription are updated to reflect current classification. The journal is using the Angiosperm Phylogeny Working Group II classification system.

Recommended sources for verifying CURRENT binomial information. It cannot be understated enough that most authors THINK that the names that they have used are either current or are the names that should be used. However, quite frequently, one or more names used within a manuscript will have been updated and will need to be changed. Most authors are grateful for this service, but a few become angry and do not understand that it is a journal policy to publish the currently accepted binomial and not a) the binomial listed in the most commonly used flora, b) the binomial that is most known, c) the binomial that the author knows best, or d) the binomial that was cited in a particular reference. Similar arguments are sometimes given for plant family circumscriptions but these also must follow the journal policy. At the end of the day, authors have a choice and if a particular author does not wish to be consistent with the journal policy then they are welcome to publish their manuscript elsewhere. [Note that the journal will not co-publish old and new binomials in an effort to satisfy parallel nomenclatures. ONLY the current name will be published unless the point of the paper specifically includes discussion of older names.]

Sources for Plant Binomial Names (listed in order of preference):

1. Tropicos Database
2. Kew Checklist of Selected Plant Families
3. Flora Europaea

Sources for Fungi Binomial Names (listed in order of preference):

1. Index Fungorum

Common names that have NOT been formally published following either of the following codes will be treated as simply vernacular names without any special scientific standing and without special capitalization or punctuation. The function of this journal is NOT to establish new scientific taxa at any level. "Ethnospecies," "Unpublished Landraces," and other important contributions may be published but will not be treated as "species novum" within this journal.

1. International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
2. International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants

If you identify a better on-line source of up-to-date information please contact the editors of the journal so that the source can evaluated and this list modified.