• Electrocatalysis will play an important role in society's transition to renewable energy.

• Knowledge exchange between the communities that study heterogeneous, synthetic and biological molecular electrocatalysis is challenging due to divergent nomenclature, analytical approaches and definitions of catalytic activity. • Harmonizing approaches will facilitate the sharing of best practices and provide new opportunities to improve performance in electrocatalysis.

An urgently needed transition towards a sustainable and renewable energy landscape compels an increasing role for electrocatalysis. Distinct classes of electrocatalysts have each shown important benefits in energy conversion and activation of small molecules such as CO2, H2O, O2 and H2: synthetic and biological molecular electrocatalysts, and heterogeneous and reticular material electrocatalysts. This Perspective seeks to foster knowledge exchange between the scientific communities by comparing these different electrocatalytic systems. The different subdisciplines employ divergent nomenclature, analytical approaches and definitions of catalytic activity, even in cases of substantial overlap in chemical principles. We propose a set of conditions that must be met to ensure an unbiased