[Taxacom] Proposed ICZN amendments on electronic publishing

[Dr. David Campbell]

I just saw the proposed ICZN amendments in the Zool. J. Linn. Soc.; the 
article seems to indicate that they have already appeared in other 
journals.  I don't immediately spot any discussion of this in the 
archives.

This is an area with a number of practical issues to work out.  
However, my particular concern is that I do not see any reference to 
peer review or other quality control as a requirement.  It sounds as 
though anything that someone can get appropriately archived and 
accessible online would be nomenclaturally legal.  This is already a 
problem with essentially self-published paper volumes; allowing it 
online would only make it easier for someone to cause lots of headaches 
and extra work for serious taxonomists by legalizing a lot of poorly-
justified names.  (Of course, not all self-published materials are of 
poor quality, but I suspect almost all of us can think of someone who 
would (in our opinions) could advance the science of taxonomy by 
ceasing to publish taxonomic work.)

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections Building
Department of Biological Sciences
Biodiversity and Systematics
University of Alabama, Box 870345
Tuscaloosa AL 35487-0345  USA