Registration of animal names

[Robin Leech]

Anyone who has the where-with-all to publish certainly has the
where-with-all to put a separate or reprint into an envelope, then forward
to UK
Robin Leech
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Shattuck" <steves at ENTO.CSIRO.AU>
To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 4:56 PM
Subject: Registration of animal names


> >        There was a discussion of "registration" of new names using Zool.
> >Record in the context of the last revision of the ICZN.  The idea that a
> >new name would not be valid until it appeared in Zool.Record was not
> >approved, and given their lack of complete coverage of taxonomic
> >publications, it was probably a good idea not to trust them with any
formal
> >"registration" function.
>
> I believe this misses the point.  Currently it is the undertaking of the
> Zoological Record to find publications containing taxonomic events.  As we
> are all well aware, this can be a daunting task for even a small taxonomic
> group, forget about all animals.  The registration proposal would require
> that authors send reprints (or something similar) to Zoo. Rec. for
> inclusion.  This shifts the responsibility from Zool. Rec. to authors and
> will (by definition) mean that Zoo. Rec. IS complete (if the name isn't
> there, it isn't valid).
>
> <soap-box-on>
>
> If the taxonomic community is serious about activities such as GBIF,
Species
> 2000, All Taxa and the like, then we may well need to take a good long
look
> at how we work and question some of our long-held and fundamental beliefs.
> To suggest that sending a reprint of latest your taxonomic paper to London
> to be included in the "Global List of Life" is too much work or places too
> much responsibility on authors or will exclude some researchers who don't
> have access to postal services is total crap.  If we want truly global
> taxonomic initiatives to succeed then everyone must contribute.  I would
> have thought that sticking a reprint in an envelope and sending it to
London
> (or wherever) would have paid huge dividends well beyond the minimal
costs.
>
> <soap-box-off>
>
> Steve Shattuck
> CSIRO Entomology
> biolink at ento.csiro.au
>