Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology is the main resource for determining the identity of prokaryotic organisms, emphasizing bacterial species, using every characterizing aspect.
[1] First published in 1923 by David Hendricks Bergey, it is used to classify bacteria based on their structural and functional attributes by arranging them into specific familial orders.
[2] The Taxonomic Outline of Bacteria and Archaea is a derived publication indexing taxon names from version two of the manual.
[5] The five-volume BMSB is officially replaced by Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria (BMSAB), a continuously-updated online book, since 2015.
[6] The change in volume set to "Systematic Bacteriology" came in a new contract in 1980, whereupon the new style included "relationships between organisms" and had "expanded scope" overall.