ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2022
What's in a name? Taxonomic and gender biases in the etymology of new species names.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Article
- Stop using racist, unethical, and inappropriate names in taxonomy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Nomenclatural stability and the longevity of helminth species names.Systematic parasitology · 2024Article
- Call me by your name: Considerations of DNA sequences as types within wider discussions on fungal nomenclature.Mycology · 2024Review
- Naming the menagerie: creativity, culture and consequences in the formation of scientific names.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Biases in parasite biodiversity research: why some helminth species attract more research than others.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Can species naming drive scientific attention? A perspective from plant-feeding arthropods.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Short and sweet: an analysis of the length of parasite species names.Systematic parasitology · 2022Article
- What's in a name? Taxonomic and gender biases in the etymology of new species names.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As our inventory of Earth's biodiversity progresses, the number of species given a Latin binomial name is also growing. While the coining of species names is bound by rules, the sources of inspiration used by taxonomists are an eclectic mix. We investigated naming trends for nearly 2900 new species of parasitic helminths described in the past two decades. Our analysis indicates that the likelihood of new species being given names that convey some information about them (name derived from morphology, host or locality of origin) or not (named after an eminent scientist, or for something else) depends on the higher taxonomic group to which the parasite or its host belongs. We also found a consistent gender bias among species named after eminent scientists, with male scientists being immortalized disproportionately more frequently than female scientists. Finally, we found that the tendency for taxonomists to name new species after a family member or close friend has increased over the past 20 years. We end by offering suggestions for future species naming, aimed at honouring the scientific community's diversity and avoiding etymological nepotism and cronyism, while still allowing for creativity in crafting new Latin species names.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.