- Foreword to the First Edition
- Supplement to the Foreword of the First Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Preface to the 1975 Edition
- Preface to the Present Edition
- Memorial to Professor R. E. Buchanan
- Chapter 1. General Considerations
- Chapter 2. Principles
- Chapter 3. Rules of Nomenclature with Recommendations
- Chapter 4. Advisory Notes
- Statutes of the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology
- Statutes of the Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies
- Appendices
- Appendix 1. Codes of Nomenclature
- Appendix 2. Approved Lists of Bacterial Names
- Appendix 3. Published Sources for Names of Bacterial, Algal, Protozoal, Fungal, and Viral Taxa
- Appendix 4. Conserved and Rejected Names of Bacterial Taxa
- Appendix 5. Opinions Relating to the Nomenclature of Bacteria
- Appendix 6. Published Sources for Recommended Minimal Descriptions
- Appendix 7. Publication of a New Name
- Appendix 8. Preparation of a Request for an Opinion
- Appendix 9. Orthography
- Appendix 10. Infrasubspecific Subdivisions