[Taxacom] the zoological code and online publications

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

From: "Francisco Welter-Schultes" <fwelter at gwdg.de>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2014 10:37 PM

>I extract from this discussion that many rules of the ICZN Code must be
> written much more clearly in the next Code edition, with real-life
> examples to illustrate them, [...]

***
I agree on the "real-life examples"; having these would make 
a great difference in accessibility and including these should be 
doable (although the amount of work involved should not be
underestimated: writing a good example involves luck and
painstaking attention to detail). 

I would agree on principle that it would be a good idea to
have "many rules of the ICZN Code [...] written much more 
clearly in the next Code edition", but only on principle.
The rules together form a finely tuned machine and changing
a few words in a rule can have all kinds of effects in other
rules. Having clearer rules is highly desirable but can realistically
only be achieved in the long term.
* * *
 
> I regard it as a job of the Editorial Committee of the next Code edition
> to increase the number of taxonomists and publishers who easily and
> quickly understand the rules of the Code and take the appropriate and
> correct actions.

***
I do not see this happening. The Code is clear enough on
e-publication and does not need improvement.

What is more likely to help is a separate easy-to-read page 
on the ICZN website, aimed at publishers, composed in language 
that publishers understand. Maybe this is already there, or is 
part of the Zoobank registration process, but I have not found
it? It is clear from the discussion that publishers are likely to
miss that any taxonomic paper with any nomenclatural act
needs to be registered.

Paul