Proceedings: Biological Nomenclature in 21st Century

[jr19]

Proceedings of A Mini-Symposium on
BIOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE IN THE 21st CENTURY

http://www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html

Edited by James L. Reveal

We are pleased to announce the above electronic publication.

Introduction

In the fall of 1995 the University of Maryland adopted a policy on electronic
publications, treating them as equivalent to printed matter. This, coupled
with the importance of the subject, combined to produce these Proceedings
(http://www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html) of a mini-symposium on biological
nomenclature in the 21st century held at the University of Maryland on 4
November 1996 under the sponsorship of the BEES faculty and the College of Life
Sciences (http://www.life.umd.edu/). With the assistance of seminar
coordinators, Dr. Kenneth P. Sebens and Dr. Charles B. Fenster, I was
permitted to invite Dr. Dan H. Nicolson, Dr. John McNeill, Dr. Richard K.
Brummitt and Dr. Kevin de Queiroz to examine the importance of codes of
scientific nomenclature in the 21st century. In September, abstracts of the
four invited speakers were published electronically and requests were made for
commentaries.

Prompt publication was made possible by the timely submission of contributions
from the four speakers and three individuals who sent commentaries. To the
numerous biologists who took time to review each of the manuscripts rapidly,
and each of the contributors who responded to the reviewer's remarks promptly
- all done electronically - I am most grateful. This is particularly
noteworthy because the usual payment for such labor, a copy of the final
published work, is not the same in this case.

The future of archieving electronic publications is uncertain. Therefore,
individuals are encouraged to make hardcopies of each paper and place them in
libraries for future reference. Furthermore, an electronic version is being
archived by the University of Maryland, and others wishing to do so are herein
granted permission.

With the formal publication of the Proceedings, others wishing to present
comments are urge to do so through TAXACOM.

The effort has been a learning exercise. The product is not entirely
satisfactory, but the task has been interesting and the technology is
improving rapidly. The future of the electronic world, like nomenclature in
the next century, will be intriguing even if it all seems uncertain.

The included papers:

*Introduction
---Opening Remarks by James L. Reveal
---Original Abstracts
*Chapters
---Chapter 1. Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? by Dan H. Nicolson
---Chapter 2. The BioCode: Integrated biological nomenclature in
the 21st century? by John McNeill
---Chapter 3. Quite Happy with the Present Code, Thank You by R. K. Brummitt
---Chapter 4. A Phylogenetic Approach to Biological Nomenclature as an
Alternative to the Linnaean Systems in Current Use by Kevin de Queiroz
*Chapter 5. Commentaries:
-----Commentary 1. Biological Nomenclature by Piero Delprete
-----Commentary 2. Biological Nomenclature by David Frodin
-----Commentary 3. Two Codes in a Dual System? No Thanks by Gea Zijlstra
---Chapter 6. Solutions for Biological Nomenclature by James L. Reveal

Papers presented here should be cited in the following manner:

de Queiroz, K. 1996. "A phylogenetic approach to biological
nomenclature as an alternative to the Linnean systems in
current use." In: J.L. Reveal, ed. Proceedings of a mini-
symposium on biological nomenclature in the 21st century.
University of Maryland: www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html.

James L. Reveal
Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland,
College Park, Maryland 20742-5815, U.S.A.
2 December 1996
jr19 at umail.umd.edu