Background:

Scientific discoveries have an impact in the cultural notion of the universe and the nature on earth. A discovery has to be published through a careful peer revision, and then recognized by diverse ways. A kind of recognition is the formal citation of the discovery paper on the scientific journals by the different scientists as a reference to discuss the new findings. In a scientific way, plant species discoveries are analogous to the ones on other scientific areas. However, plant discoveries are not cited formally in the plant taxonomy journals. As a result, the papers and the authors are not considered in the bibliographic databases, the general impact indexes, and of course, they are poorly known by most of the academic community. Not surprisingly, plant species discoveries are unimportant for society and decision makers.

Question:

New plant species discoveries do not have the accurate academic recognition.

Results:

A scientific discovery recognition analysis was done, by comparing some scientific disciplines against plant taxonomy. A proposal for a formal citation of new plant species publications in botanical journals is presented, so discoveries can be first recognized by the academic community.

Conclusion:

New plant species discoveries must have an academic and social recognition, comparable to those of similar scientific disciplines.

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