Fautin published numerous scientific articles and texts—including co-authoring
Encyclopædia Britannica's entry on cnidarians—and her publications have been widely cited by other researchers in the field. In her career, Fautin personally identified at least 19 new species. This database was later absorbed into
Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and
World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Fautin was a founding member of OBIS's first international committee. Furthermore, she served as the vice-chair of the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) science committee. Fautin served as vice president and commissioner of the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, overseeing the naming of new species. She served as the editor of the
scientific journal Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (1992-2001). Although she lived and worked in landlocked
Lawrence, Kansas, she felt that working from dry land was not a serious impediment, stating that "you only need to be near an airport, not the ocean." == Eponym ==