Sir

Knut Rognes in Correspondence (Nature 417, 379; 200210.1038/417379b) accused the Israel Journal of Entomology (IJE) of being political, not scientific, claiming that the editor (I.Y.) and a member of the editorial board (A.F.) refused to accept the geographical terms he used for Israel and adjacent areas in a manuscript he intended to submit (see also Nature 418, 273; 200210.1038/418273a).

The policy of the IJE has always been to promote science, not politics. One aspect of good science is a precise and consistent terminology. It is particularly difficult to maintain consistent geographical terminology in an area such as that covered by our journal, because of the prevalent and concurrent use of several languages (such as Arabic, Hebrew and English) for the names of the same localities, and the existence of many spelling variants. To overcome this difficulty, the IJE established a standard specified in the Notes for Authors (latest version July 2001), as follows: “Names of localities in Israel will be given as they are transliterated in the Israel Touring Map” and “Regions in Israel and nearby areas should follow the Fauna Palaestina map”. These two maps are given for convenience of scientific purposes only, without any political connotation.

Not only has Rognes tried to impose on us his irrelevant political views, but these views are literally wrong. At present, there is no Palestinian state. If and when a Palestinian state is established, with defined boundaries and scholarly official maps, we will use their transliterated spelling for the appropriate localities. Until then, we will remain with our current policy, as would any scientific journal (including the journal Fauna of Saudi Arabia, which, as correctly mentioned by Rognes, ignores the existence of recognized states).

The IJE has never “banned any mention of Palestinian national territory”, as Rognes claims; as a scientific journal we simply do not find it necessary to deal with political concerns of authors. We hope that, following this clarification, Rognes will return to us, and we shall welcome his paper in the IJE, where it indeed belongs.