Chapter 11: Authorship

Article 50. Authors of names and nomenclatural acts.

50.1. Identity of authors. The author of a name or nomenclatural act is the person who first publishes it [Arts. 8, 11] in a way that satisfies the criteria of availability [Arts. 10 to 20] (but for certain names published in synonymy see Article 50.7). If a work is by more than one person but it is clear from the contents that only one of these is responsible for the name or act, then that person is the author; otherwise the author of the work is deemed to be the author of the name or act. If the author, or the person who publishes the work, cannot be determined from the contents, then the name or act is deemed to be anonymous (see Article 14 for the availability of anonymous names and nomenclatural acts).

• 50.1.1. However, if it is clear from the contents that some person other than an author of the work is alone responsible both for the name or act and for satisfying the criteria of availability other than actual publication, then that other person is the author of the name or act. If the identity of that other person is not explicit in the work itself, then the author is deemed to be the person who publishes the work.

• 50.1.2. In the case of original fixation of a type species by the deliberate employment of a species-group name in the sense of a previous misidentification, the person who deliberately uses the misidentification is deemed to be the author of a new specific name [Arts. 11.10, 67.13 and 70.4].

• 50.1.3. The provisions of this Chapter apply also to joint authors.

Example. The binomen Dasyurus laniarius (Mammalia) was published in an account of expeditions of which Mitchell (1838) is the author. The specific name laniarius in this binomen and the description of the taxon are contained in a letter from Owen to Mitchell that the latter published verbatim (explicitly demonstrating in the work itself that Owen alone was responsible both for the name and for the description which made it available). Owen is the author of D. laniarius, not Mitchell.

Recommendation 50A. Multiple authors. When a name is proposed in a multi-authored work, but only one (or some) of the authors is (are) directly responsible for the name and satisfying the criteria that make the name available, then the author(s) directly responsible should be identified explicitly. Co-authors of the whole work who have not had such direct responsibility for the name should not automatically be included as authors of the name. See Recommendation 51E for citing the names of such authors.

50.2. Authorship of names in reports of meetings. If the name of a taxon is made available by publication in a report or minutes of a meeting, the person responsible for the name, not the Secretary or other reporter of the meeting, is the author of the name.

Recommendation 50B. Information in minutes. Secretaries and other reporters of meetings should not include in their published reports new scientific names or nomenclatural acts.

50.3. Authorship unaffected by changes in rank or combination.

• 50.3.1. The authorship of the name of a nominal taxon within the family group, genus group or species group is not affected by the rank at which it is used. But if an infrasubspecific name that otherwise satisfies the criteria of availability is used in a manner that makes it available for a species or subspecies, its author is the one who first so uses it [Arts. 10.2, 45.5.1].

• 50.3.2. Change in generic combination of a species-group name does not affect its authorship (see Article 51.3 for the use of parentheses to indicate changed combinations).

50.4. Authorship of justified emendations. A justified emendation is attributed to the author of the name in its original incorrect spelling and not to the person making the emendation [Arts. 19.2, 33.2.2].

50.5. Authorship of unjustified emendations. An unjustified emendation is attributed to the author who first publishes it [Art. 33.2.3].

50.6. Authorship of a name published simultaneously by different authors. When two or more identical names for the same taxonomic taxon are published on the same date, by different authors in the same or different works, their precedence (and hence the authorship of the name) is determined by the application of Article 24.

Example. The name Zygomaturus keani (Mammalia) was published for the first time by Stirton and by Plane in two different papers in the same publication (1967). Different specimens are described in the two papers. Although Plane attributed the name to Stirton, the material described in Plane's paper is not the same as that in Stirton's and, hence, Plane was the sole author of the name in that place. Mahoney & Ride (1975) as First Revisers [Art. 24.2.2] gave precedence to Stirton's work and name (following Plane's intentions - see Recommendation 24B), and so the author of the name is Stirton and the type specimens are those fixed by him.

50.7. Authorship of names first published as junior synonyms. If a scientific name (taken, for example, from a label or manuscript) was first published in the synonymy of an available name and became available before 1961 through the provisions of Article 11.6, its author is the person who published it as a synonym, even if some other originator is cited, and is not the person who subsequently adopted it as a valid name [Art. 11.6].

Recommendation 50C. Authorship of excluded or unavailable names. When it is desirable, for bibliographic or other reasons, to refer to an excluded [Art. 1.3] or unavailable name, the authorship should be attributed to the person who published it with that status, unless that author cited some other person as the originator (for citation and examples see Recommendation 51F).

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