Availability & electronic publication

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The ICZN rules governing availability of animal names require publication in a durable medium.  To date, that has been interpreted as including paper and 'hard' digital media such as CD-ROMs, but this has become increasingly problematic as electronic publication becomes more common. To address this issue the Commission is considering an amendment to the Code that will permit electronic publication of new names and nomenclatural acts. A proposed amendment has been published in Zootaxa, and will be followed by publication in other journals, including the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 65(4), December 2008. This initiates a year-long period for community input, after which a final amendment will be drafted and voted upon by the Commission.

A pdf of the proposed amendment published in Zootaxa may be obtained here.

The summary points are:
• Electronic-only publications should be allowed, if mechanisms can be found that give reasonable assurance of the long-term accessibility of the information they contain.
• Some method of registration should be part of the mechanism of allowing electronic publication of names and nomenclatural acts.
• Physical works that are not paper-based (e.g. CD-ROMs, DVDs) should be disallowed.

We welcome your input on this important topic.

 

If you are in doubt about availability of publication in a particular journal, please ask the editor or publisher to contact the ICZN Secretariat.

 

 

Links to sites where this has been broadcast :

EDIT's website

Swedish GBIF site (in Swedish)

African Invertebrates

Acarology (discussion list)

Bryozoologists listserver

Diptera.info site

Center for North American Herpetology

Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research Discussion Forums

Ruthenica (Russian Malacological Journal)