Zoological Record coverage

[Amelie H. Scheltema]

How would we ever do without you? Thank you for all that is accomplished
by ZR.

Amélie H. Scheltema
Department of Biology
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  MS #34
Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA
ascheltema at whoi.edu
Tel.: Int +1 508-289-2337
FAX: Int +1 508-457-2134



Joan Thorne wrote:

> Various messages referring to Zoological Record's coverage, and
> possible role as name register, have appeared in the past few days.
> As those most closely involved in producing ZR here is our response.
> There is nothing new in the explanations which follow, but there is
> nothing new in the criticism either.
>
> ZR makes every effort to provide fully comprehensive coverage of new
> and changed names in zoology.  In this we believe, and studies using
> new molluscan names confirm, that we are over 90% successful.
> However, what is certain, is that we are the most complete source of
> animal names of published since 1864.
>
> Most of the material indexed is obtained from the holdings of the
> British Library Document Supply Centre, and the Natural History
> Museum in London, though a growing number of publishers send us
> complimentary copies of their material.  The generous assistance of
> all these sources is gratefully acknowledged and usually enables us
> review the content of some 4,500 serial publications, and over 1,000
> books each year.  These generate about 72,000 relevant citations, and
> contain some 20,000 new names, and a further 8,000 changes in name or
> synonymy.  This is no small task and requires the activities of some
> 40 members of staff.
>
> To improve on these numbers, and gather 100% of new names, is
> difficult with our present limited resources - our work is already
> heavily subsidized by our parent company BIOSIS.  Unlike researchers,
> we do not have the resources to visit foreign institutions, or set up
> exchanges with colleagues working in all the myriad of animal groups
> covered in ZR.  It is difficult to learn about, and obtain copies of,
> more obscure publications which are not held in our source libraries.
>
> As a result ZR is perhaps only 90% complete.  However, with the help
> of the community, we could approach 100%.  What we need are reprints
> of publications containing new names which appear in titles not
> normally covered in ZR, or which we have omitted.  We admit that we
> occasionally omit names; ZR is compiled by human beings and they
> sometimes make mistakes.
>
> We have appealed for help on various other occasions but received
> little or no response, and have difficulty in understanding the
> apparent reluctance of the community to help seal the gaps in ZR.
> The effort required is small, but the benefits are great.  If the
> community has a viable alternative for producing a more comprehensive
> record of new names we would be very interested to learn about it.
>
> Judy Howcroft (Special Projects Manager BIOSIS UK)
>
> Joan Thorne (Editor Zoological Record)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Joan Thorne
> Editor
> Zoological Record
> BIOSIS, U.K.
> 54 Micklegate, York, North Yorkshire, Y01 6WF, U.K.
> Telephone +44 (0)1904 642816  Fax +44 (0)1904 612793