Cyanobacterial systematics and nomenclature as featured in the International Bulletin of Bacteriological Nomenclature and Taxonomy / International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology / International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Abstract

Surprisingly few papers on cyanobacteria have been published in the International Bulletin of Bacteriological Nomenclature and Taxonomy / International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology / International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IBBNT/IJSB/IJSEM) during its 60 years of existence. The first papers featuring the group appeared in volume 28 and, in the 32 years that have passed since, 42 articles on cyanobacteria have been published in the journal. Very few of these papers deal with the description of new taxa and this is understandable in view of the current difficulty in validly publishing new names of cyanobacteria under the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP). Other papers discuss the problems of the nomenclature of the group under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN)/ICNP and the ICBN. The largest group of articles on cyanobacteria consists of papers on systematics, in which isolates are compared using different approaches, without any implications for the nomenclature of the group under either Code. The fact that on average these papers have been highly cited shows that IJSEM and its predecessors have been an excellent framework for publications on cyanobacteria and should remain so in the future.