One of the most common ways readers encounter scientific terms is through plant and animal names. These have 2 main parts – the genus and the species – usually in Latin forms. This is known as binomial nomenclature. Put a capital letter on the genus, but leave the species in lower case.
In a scientific journal or similarly technical text, the convention is to italicise both parts of a scientific name in line with the scientific community’s conventions. Formal reports such as in in government agencies will do the same.
Increasingly, texts online and written for a more general audience are formatting these scientific names in regular upright (roman) type without italics. This is part of a wider move away from italics, because they are harder to read on screen and present difficulties for people with impaired vision.
Of course, such a change remains controversial for some because the italics convention has been in place for decades. You will need to decide for your own context how ‘radical’ you want to be.
The ASG sees the shift away from italics over time as having more benefits to readability than the likely costs of any misunderstanding.
Write the name out in full for first use. After that you can use the initial and the species name. Don’t put a full stop after the initial.
You can use either round brackets or commas to introduce the scientific name in a general text. But note that brackets take on a different role in scientific papers: to reference the person who first described the species if the genus or species name has since changed.
Use initial capitals for names higher in the naming hierarchy than genus and species where they appear. Don’t italicise them.
The taxonomy is as follows:
| Botanical names | Zoological names |
| Division | Phylum |
| Class | Class |
| Order | Order |
| Family | Family |
