PhyloCode: Preamble

1. Biology requires a precise, coherent, international system for naming clades. Scientific names have long been governed by the traditional codes (listed in Preamble item 4), but those codes do not provide a means to give stable, unambiguous names to clades. This code satisfies that need by providing rules for naming clades and describing the nomenclatural principles that form the basis for those rules.

2. This code is applicable to the names of all clades of organisms, whether extant or extinct.

3. This code may be used concurrently with the rank-based codes.

4. Although this code relies on the rank-based codes (i.e., International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (Melbourne Code) (ICNAFP1), International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) to determine the acceptability of preexisting names, it governs the application of those names independently from the rank-based codes.

5. This code includes rules, recommendations, notes, and examples. Rules are mandatory in that names contrary to them have no official standing under this code. Recommendations are not mandatory in that names contrary to them cannot be rejected on that basis. Systematists are encouraged to follow them in the interest of promoting nomenclatural uniformity and clarity, but editors and reviewers should not require that they be followed. Notes and examples are intended solely for clarification.

6. This code will take effect on the publication of Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode, and it is not retroactive.

The abbreviation adopted in the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants itself is ICN.