[Taxacom] Darwinius and electronic publication yet again

[Karen Wilson]

The issue of electronic publication is one that we are still pondering for the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, too, so I am interested to see these discussions about Darwinius and the ICZN. 

Another posting on TAXACOM says that Ellinor Michel of ICZN has advised that  'numerous identical and durable' printed copies are needed for a publication to be acceptable currently. 

Defining the middle term should be easy, but 'numerous' = ?how many: >2? >3? an arbitrary number such as 5 or 10?   -  and  'durable' = what?
In this context, CDs are scarcely durable (in archival/ scholarly library terms) given that their projected life span is measured in decades not centuries. 

Our discussions at the last IBC (in Vienna in 2005) recommended electronic publication of nomenclatural novelties should only be in online electronic journals (that also have a print version as well at this stage, of course), not in any other e-publication - see Recommendations 29A and 30A under Arrticles 29 and 30 of the ICBN http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm. The reasoning was that it should (note that I say 'should'!) be easier to find and read nomenclatural novelties in an online journal than in a monograph or other one-off publication that could be online or in some potentially unreadable file-format on a portable e-medium such as a CD, DVD or even USB drive. I am not aware, however, of any electronic archiving system that can guarantee longevity over centuries not decades for even a commercially published online journal - if anyone knows of one, I'd be interested to hear of it. 

The ICBN now also recommends that one of the hard copies of a publication of nom. novelties should be deposited with one of the relevant name-indexing centres such as an IPNI member for vascular plants. This is not registration in a regulatory sense but rather aiming to make it easier for the nomenclators to find all newly published names. (Darwin would have loved this discussion, remembering that he gave a lot of money to RBG Kew to establish Index Kewensis for the very purpose of creating an index to plant names!)

For the botanists on TAXACOM: All these aspects will be discussed in the ICBN context by the Special Committe on Electronic Publication over the next year, and recommendations on possible amendments to the ICBN will be made to the next International Botanical Congress to be held in Melbourne in July 2011.

Regards
Karen Wilson
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Karen L. Wilson, AM  |  Special Botanist Plant Diversity Section  |  National Herbarium of NSW  |  Botanic Gardens Trust  |  Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Mrs Macquaries Road, SYDNEY NSW 2000, AUSTRALIA 
Secretary-General XVIII IBC Organising Committee - Melbourne July 2011 
Chair, Special Committee on Electronic Publication, ICBN
Adjunct Assoc. Prof., University of New England, Armidale NSW

Phone: +61 2 9231 8137  |  Fax: +61 2  9251 7231  |  email: karen.wilson at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au  |  website: www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
 
The Botanic Gardens Trust is part of Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW).
This email is intended for the addressee(s) named and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete it immediately. Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender except where the sender expressly and with authority states them to be the views of the Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW) or the Botanic Gardens Trust Sydney.





-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman
Sent: Friday, 22 May 2009 3:59 AM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] ICZN position on Darwinius

Dear All,      
      I'm not positive exactly what the ICZN Secretary means by a "separate print edition" must be produced.  Sounds like they are requiring an edition printed on paper.
      This sounds like a rather expensive fix to the problem.  Why couldn't they do what Palaeontologica Electronica does, namely depositing CD-ROM copies of the publication in at least 5 major libraries (which is apparently in accordance with the requirements of Article 8.6 of ICZN).  Of course, Article 8.6 also requires that those 5 major libraries be explicitly named in the publication.  Couldn't the online publication then simply be modified to list those 5 libraries?
Or does the ICZN believe it is too late to fix the problem with CD-ROMs and printing on paper is the only solution they will now accept?  I guess it depends exactly how one defines "separate print edition" (do
identical CD-ROMs count?).     
 
        --------Ken Kinman


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