In zoological nomenclature, author citation refers to the person (or team) who first makes a scientific name of a taxon available. This is done in a scientific publication while fulfilling the formal requirements.
Rank matters
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature recognises three groups of names, according to rank:
- family-group names, at the ranks of superfamily, family, subfamily, tribe, subtribe (any rank below superfamily and above genus).
- genus-group names, at the ranks of genus and subgenus.
- species-group names, at the ranks of species and subspecies.
Within each group, the same authorship applies regardless of the taxon level to which the name (with, in the case of a family-group name, the appropriate ending) is applied. For example, the taxa that the Red admiral butterfly can be assigned to:
- Family: Nymphalidae Swainson, 1827 so also
- subfamily: Nymphalinae Swainson, 1827 and
- tribe Nymphalini Swainson, 1827
- Genus: Vanessa Fabricius, 1807
- Species: Vanessa atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758)
The parentheses around the author citation indicate that this is not the original taxonomic placement: in this case, Linnaeus published the name as
- Papilio atalanta Linnaeus, 1758.
Author names
In citing the name of an author, the surname is given in full, not abbreviated, with no mention of the first name(s). If the same surname is common to more than one author, initials are given. The date of (first) publication is added, with a comma between the author and date. For example:
- Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758
- the Bowhead Whale was described and named by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758
- Anser albifrons (Scopoli, 1769)
- the White-fronted Goose was first described (by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli), as Branta albifrons Scopoli, 1769. It was later moved to the genus Anser: the taxonomist taking the decision to effect the move is not cited.
Full citation should be restricted to taxonomic publications: a full citation of this last species is
- Branta albifrons Scopoli, 1769, Annus I Hist.-Nat. 69.
