[Taxacom] A simple solution?

[Adam Cotton]

I have been following the convoluted arguments on both listserves, and would 
like to offer a suggestion that keeps things simple, and allows both 
traditional 'paper' publishing as well as e-publishing.

It seems that most of us agree that doing nothing is not an option if the 
ICZN (substitute ICBN nearly anywhere in this post) is to remain relevant to 
the taxonomic world as a whole.

We also agree that the current Article 8.6 in the ICZN Code is not 
satisfactorary, as it is already out of date with technology.

Rather than a separate organisation being set up as an e-publication Bank 
per se at this time, why not mandate that a copy (in the same format as the 
original) of any electronic publication must be sent to the 'Registrar' at 
the ICZN at the time of publication (to arrive within a specified time 
period, perhaps 1 month, to allow for the possibility that it must be sent 
by snailmail), rather than the current "deposited in at least 5 major 
publicly accessible libraries which are identified by name in the work 
itself", which does not clearly define the quality of library considered or 
not considered 'major'. The Registrar would then add the nomenclatorial 
information to the bottom of a page in the ICZN website, so the whole World 
can see that eg. xxx new name has been published with the reference to the 
e-publication listed. This would prevent problems of validity of 
publication, at the same time as disseminating the basic information 
(nomenclatorial act & reference) to the taxonomists who need to know about 
it. At the same time there would be no question over priority of 
e-publications, or between e- and paper publications, as the publication 
date would be included in the information on the website.

This could be set up with relatively little extra funding, and once 
established, over time it would be relatively easy to find sources of new 
funding to expand the project into a repository of ALL new nomenclatorial 
acts (with a change mandating that paper publications must also be sent to 
the Registrar) at a later stage.

The ICZN Registry webpage could also include a link to download the e-paper 
from the ICZN's server (providing open access). However it may be necessary 
to implement this at a later time, when  the ICZN server is able to both 
store and provide online access to a large amount of data and users. 
Probably this would be dependent on increased funding generated by the first 
phase of the project.

Adam Cotton.