This kind of “rebranding” has been happening for some time. In ornithology, I recall a debate about changing the name of our flagship journals, The Auk and The Condor. A compromise, I guess, was to give each subtitles. One driving force I heard was that administrators doing bean counting of faculty productivity thought that the journal titles looked unscientific or like a place where amateurs would publish. I’ve also seen Integrative Biology taking over from some classical terms. Whether all of this improves our science or just canalizes it into a new direction that purges natural history and taxonomy will be interesting to track.
Check out this classic article: Thomson, K.S. 1989. A light in the attic. American Scientist. 77(May-June):264-266. You’ll learn why you should never use the terms descriptive (use characterization), observation (use experiment), museum (use either institute, center, academy), or museum collections (use research collections). So this is not a new trend. Angelo Capparella Illinois State University Curator of the research collections of vertebrates (aka museum specimens). From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Malcolm McCallum Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 11:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] plant science vs. botany Over the past several years I have noticed a trend that plant-focused vacancies will refer to the vacancy as plant science and less frequently what used to be typically referred to as zoology will be instead referred to as animal science. When I was an undergraduate, agronomy, pomology, forestry, and course related to agriculture were designated plant science. Agricutlure courses like dairy science, feedlot management, swine management, animal nutrition and the like were designated animal science. The current widespread lack of distinction between zoology vs. animal science, and botany vs. plant science creates a lot of confusion, and doesn't really make any sense to me. Is there a reason that people have stopped using the term zoology/botany and in its stead began using animal science/plant science? It seems like an inappropriate muddying of the academic waters to me. A Plant Scientist and a Botanist are not the same thing, nor is an animal scientist and a zoologist the same thing. Although some people might cross these fields (a ruminant ecologist might cross these areas for example). I know most people probably couldn't care less about this, but I feel it is a pretty important issue. If we are not consistent with terminology, why should we expect students and others to take it seriously? Please feel free to contact me off list because some members of the ECOLOG discussion list get annoyed when it actually involves discussion, so be it. -- Malcolm L. McCallum, PHD, REP Link to online CV and portfolio : https://www.visualcv.com/malcolm-mc-callum?access=18A9RYkDGxO “Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.” -President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 into law. "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
