Each page on the Butterflies of India website has an author or a set of authors. As a policy, we give authorship only if: (a) one contributes lifecycles, which is substantial information that is not commonly found elsewhere, (b) one contributes significant range extensions, new records of larval host plants or similar new natural history information, or (c) one writes text about the species. Examples of authorships for early stages can be found here:
http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/lifecycles-on-butterflies-of-india-website
Some of the examples of authorships for information contributed to the species pages are below, and this list will grow as textual content is added to species pages:
Vanessa indica – Indian Red Admiral
Celaenorrhinus putra – Restricted Spotted Flat
Apharitis lilacinus – Lilac Silverline
Bhutanitis ludlowi – Mystical Bhutan Glory (=Ludlow's Bhutan Glory or Ludlow's Bhutan Swallowtail)
Images are given on the website along with the image copyright, so photographers are credited on the images themselves. We reserve authorships only for substantial or new information, not merely for images even if they belong to rare species that have not been photographed before. We have similarly rare species images on the website without any information on the species, and therefore those species pages do not yet have any specific authors (“Anonymous”). Examples include, among many others:
Lethe gulnihal – Dull Forester
Tanaecia cocytus – Lavender Count
Neptis nycteus – Hockeystick Sailer
Baoris unicolor – Black Paint-brush Swift
Euthalia iva – Grand Duke
Pudicitia pholus – Spotted Redeye
Aeromachus kali – Blue-spotted Scrub Hopper
Satarupa zulla – Equal White Flat (=Tytler's White Flat)
Tajuria ister – Uncertain Royal
Acupicta delicatum – Dark Tinsel
When text is contributed to these species pages, the people who contribute the text will become authors of those pages, and more authors can be added in the future as more information and/or lifecycles accumulate.
Similar authorship policies are in place on almost all technical biodiversity-related websites (e.g., Tree of Life, and Encyclopedia of Life projects). All non-technical websites (including Wikipedia), of course, do not give authorships either for images or for information that their various contributors contribute, and even the photographer names are not mentioned right next to the images on many of these websites (especially true of the very successful Wikipedia model). Therefore, our copyright policy for the images and authorship policy for the page content are in line with the policies on other technical websites, and are more attractive and fair in many ways compared to other websites.
The editors of this website have written these copyright and authorship policies after reviewing policies for many other technical websites and academic journals. The final decision on authorships will be made by the editors based on their personal experience of scientific publishing.
Cite this page along with its URL as:
Kunte, K., and U. Kodandaramaiah. 2021. Authorship Policy For The Butterflies Of India Website . In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 3.11. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.
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