Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature
Quarterly printed version of Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature published by TSO
The Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature (KR) is a continually updated database of over 200,000 references published since 1971 relating to the taxonomy of flowering plants, gymnosperms and ferns. The KR is also published in print on a quarterly basis by The Stationery Office (TSO).
The main purpose of the KR is to support the work of the botanists in the Kew Herbarium. It also forms an invaluable resource for botanists, other researchers, academics and students around the world seeking access to specialist botanical literature.
All citation details for the references are entered. Most references in KR are indexed according to the systematic groups: those on Pteridophyta and Gymnospermae under classes and genera; the Angiospermae references under families and genera. References are not indexed to species level.
In addition to articles on taxonomic groups, references on phytogeography, nomenclature, chromosome surveys, chemotaxonomy, floristics and botanical institutions are indexed; also papers of taxonomic interest in the fields of anatomy and morphology, palynology, embryology and reproductive biology and relevant bibliographies and biographies.
The KR, first published in print in 1974, was computerised in the mid 1980s, and launched on the RBG Kew external website in 2000. In 2002 it was included as a dataset in Kew’s electronic Plant Information Centre (ePIC). More recently, the database structure of the three strategic bibliographic databases (including KR, Plant Micromorphology Bibliographic Database and Economic Botany Bibliographic Database) was re-designed and since the end of 2005 complex searches can be made across all three databases at the same time as part of the web-based Kew Bibliographic Databases search page.
Project Team
Project Leader: McNeil, Ann
Herbarium
Lesley Walsingham
IT
Sally Hinchcliffe, Nicola Nicolson
Publishing
Ann McNeil, Lydia White