The Code Decoded
A User's Guide to the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants
Description:... The purpose of this second edition of The Code Decoded is to serve as a user's guide to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants ("Code"), specifically the Shenzhen Code (Turland & al., 2018). My objective, as for the first edition (Turland, 2013), has been to create a text that is reasonably clear and simple, which inevitably means it will fail to cover every rule and explain every circumstance that you, the user, will encounter. A very simple guide would be forced to gloss over so many important details that I fear it would be of limited use, whereas a truly comprehensive guide would be even more complex and intimidating than the Code itself. These two hypothetical guides would seem to defeat the objective, so instead I offer what I hope is a middle path, neither oversimplified nor unnecessarily complicated. While I realize the futility of trying to satisfy all potential users, I hope that this guide will be useful to those who are new to the Code as well as to veterans who nevertheless are not familiar with every arcane detail. The chapters are arranged so that the guide may be used for quick reference, e.g. important dates for certain rules, how to publish a new name, how to find the correct name for a taxon, how to designate a type, or even how to try to change the Code itself. Again with quick reference in mind I have employed subheadings, boxes, bulleted lists, tables, and key words in boldface. I have tried to explain the text of the Code in plain language, although it is necessary to know some technical terms in order to follow this guide (and for those, see Chapter 2).
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