Durkin, Louisa and Jansson, Tobias and Sanchez-Garcia, Marisol and Khomich, Maryia and Ryberg, Martin and Kristiansson, Erik and Nilsson, R. Henrik
(2020).
When mycologists describe new species, not all relevant information is provided (clearly enough).
MycoKeys. 72
, 109-128
[Research article]
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Abstract
Taxonomic mycology struggles with what seems to be a perpetual shortage of resources. Logically, fungal taxonomists should therefore leverage every opportunity to highlight and visualize the importance of taxonomic work, the usefulness of taxonomic data far beyond taxonomy, and the integrative and collaborative nature of modern taxonomy at large. Is mycology really doing that, though? In this study, we went through ten years' worth (2009-2018) of species descriptions of extant fungal taxa - 1,097 studies describing at most ten new species - in five major mycological journals plus one plant journal. We estimated the frequency at which a range of key words, illustrations, and concepts related to ecology, geography, taxonomy, molecular data, and data availability were provided with the descriptions. We also considered a range of science-demographical aspects such as gender bias and the rejuvenation of taxonomy and taxonomists as well as public availability of the results. Our results show that the target audience of fungal specks descriptions appears to be other fungal taxonomists, because many aspects of the new species were presented only implicitly, if at all. Although many of the parameters we estimated show a gradual, and in some cases marked, change for the better over time, they still paint a somewhat bleak picture of mycological taxonomy as a male-dominated field where the wants and needs of an extended target audience are often not understood or even considered. This study hopes to leave a mark on the way fungal species are described by putting the focus on ways in which fungal taxonomy can better anticipate the end users of species descriptions - be they mycologists, other researchers, the public at large, or even algorithms. In the end, fungal taxonomy, too, is likely to benefit from such measures.
Authors/Creators: | Durkin, Louisa and Jansson, Tobias and Sanchez-Garcia, Marisol and Khomich, Maryia and Ryberg, Martin and Kristiansson, Erik and Nilsson, R. Henrik | ||||||
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Title: | When mycologists describe new species, not all relevant information is provided (clearly enough) | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | MycoKeys | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 72 | ||||||
Page range: | 109-128 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 20 | ||||||
ISSN: | 1314-4057 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Biological Systematics | ||||||
Keywords: | collaboration, gender equality, metadata, reproducibility, species description, taxonomy | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108097 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108097 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 17816 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology (S) > Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 14 Oct 2020 15:00 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:20 |
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