[Taxacom] two names online published - one new species

Stephen Thorpe stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz
Fri Jan 22 14:29:26 CST 2016


The issue may not be "huge", but I think it is probably bigger than you indicate. There can be problems in determining "the earliest date on which all of the requirements have been met". Adding to this problem is the fact that many publishers are publishing print editions online ahead of actual print (sometimes by months). We have already seen Frank Krell suggest, quite erroneously in my view, that "March 2016" must be a mistake on the Cretaceous Research website. In fact, it is no mistake! They have published their March 2016 print edition online already, but it presumably won't be actually printed until March! One, I suppose only fairly minor problem, concerns the nominal year of publication for taxon names, which is frequently widely appended to the names (i.e., Aus bus Author, YEAR). It is now very hard to choose between one year and the next (if online versions are published in one year, but the print version isn't actually printed until the following year). Another problem is that many people have wasted a significant amount of time doing preregistrations on ZooBank that were in fact pointless. They thought that they were validly publishing online first! There are also issues relating to how easy it might be to make apparently retroactive edits on ZooBank, which cannot be (at least not publicly) datestamped (for example, what would happen if I now edited archive info into the Zoobank record for Systematic Entomology?) Regrettably, I think that in the rush to push through a Zootaxa optimised electronic amendment, the ICZN has created rather a confusing mess for many authors and publishers to try to deal with. BTW, congrats to Z.-Q. Zhang on his recent appointment as head of the ICZN (I would have thought that there was rather a big COI involved there, but apparently not...)

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 22/1/16, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org> wrote:

 Subject: RE: [Taxacom] two names online published - one new species
 To: "'Stephen Thorpe'" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>, taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu, "'engel'" <msengel at ku.edu>, "'Doug Yanega'" <dyanega at ucr.edu>
 Received: Friday, 22 January, 2016, 6:45 PM
 
 Well, it's neither
 new, nor huge*.  But it is a problem, and it was a problem
 that was recognized prior to the publication of the
 Amendment, and one which the Commissioners have discussed
 several times.
 
 The
 fundamental question that we do not have a definitive answer
 for yet (even though we have an over-abundance of opinions),
 is how to establish the date of publication for purposes of
 priority, when the following dates are non-identical:
 
 1) The date on which the
 publication was registered in ZooBank.
 2)
 The date of publication as stated in the ZooBank record.
 3) The date of publication as stated in the
 work itself.
 4) The date on which the first
 electronic edition of the work was obtainable.
 5) The date on which the ISSN or ISBN was added
 to the ZooBank record.
 6) The date on which
 the Intended archive was added to the ZooBank record.
 7) The date on which a revised version of the
 electronic edition of the work was obtainable (e.g.,
 containing evidence of registration).
 8) The
 date on which paper copies were obtainable.
 
 There are other dates as well
 (e.g., the date of publication as stated in the paper
 edition of the work, etc.), but I hope you get the point
 that it's not a simple issue, because there are many
 possible dates associated with a given work.
 
 So... which is the date of
 publication for purposes of priority?  Certainly, most
 would agree that it cannot be prior to #4 (assuming the
 above list is in chronological sequence).  Certainly, not
 after #8 (provided the paper edition meets all other
 criteria of the code for paper-based publications).  Most
 Commissioners I have discussed this with agree that the
 logical answer is, generally "the earliest date on
 which all of the requirements have been
 met".   As #2 has no bearing on any article
 in the Code, we can probably ignore that one.  But all the
 others are in potential play.  One could argue (pretty
 effectively, in fact), that while the Code requires
 electronic works to include the date of publication to be
 stated within the work itself, there is no requirement that
 it be the *correct* date of publication.  Indeed, if such a
 requirement was, in fact, part of the Code (or how the Code
 is interpreted), stability would most likely suffer. 
 
 Until there is clarity on this
 issue, either by Declaration, Amendment, formal statement,
 or ratified 5th Edition by the Commission, it seems to me
 (and most others I've discussed it with), that the
 trusty "the earliest date on which all of the
 requirements have been met" approach seems the most
 logical to use as a guideline. 
 
 Aloha,
 Rich
 
 *The reason it's not a "huge"
 issue is that it ultimately affects date of publication for
 purposes of priority; and while there may be a few cases
 where potentially competing names both fall within the
 "grey zone", there certainly aren't many.
 
 
 > -----Original
 Message-----
 > From: Stephen Thorpe
 [mailto:stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz]
 > Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 11:53
 AM
 > To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu;
 engel; Doug Yanega
 > Cc: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
 > Subject: Re: [Taxacom] two names online
 published - one new species
 > 
 > Doug (CC Rich),
 > 
 > I think we may have just stumbled upon a
 huge problem: "the ZooBank
 >
 registration state both the name of an electronic archive
 intended to
 > preserve the work and
 ..."
 > 
 > I have
 always assumed that the publisher does this, once for each
 journal?
 > Certainly Magnolia Press does
 it for Zootaxa (not surprisingly, perhaps, since
 > the whole electronic amendment is arguably
 optimised for Zootaxa). How
 > many
 authors think to worry about the archive when registering
 articles on
 > ZooBank? Bugger all!
 Looking at some random records on ZooBank, I'm now
 > worried that a large number of them fail
 this requirement! I think we need
 > some
 clarification here (Rich?)
 > 
 > Stephen
 > 
 >
 --------------------------------------------
 > On Fri, 22/1/16, Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu>
 wrote:
 > 
 >  Subject:
 Re: [Taxacom] two names online published - one new
 species
 >  To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu,
 "engel" <msengel at ku.edu>
 >  Received: Friday, 22 January, 2016,
 10:17 AM
 > 
 >  On
 1/21/16 1:03 PM,
 >  Stephen Thorpe
 wrote:
 >  > It is worth
 >  noting that Michael Engel did
 preregister his article (twice
 > 
 actually!) on ZooBank:
 >  >
 >  > 18 October 2015 http://zoobank.org/References/A6A94078-42E5-48B8-
 > B602-49DA7D0523F6
 > 
 [Record not publicly viewable]
 >  >
 13
 >  November 2015 http://zoobank.org/References/ADFE8605-38F3-45C6-
 > B686-5094367C9695
 > 
 >
 >  > It would therefore
 >  appear to be the fault of the journal
 (Cretaceous Research)  editorial team
 >
 that no ZooBank registration was indicated in  the
 publication, and very
 > unfortunate in
 this case since it  the same taxon was apparently
 validly
 > described as new by  Pohl
 & Beutel shortly after!
 >  >
 >  It is not just this one thing that
 causes the  name to be unavailable.
 > 
 There are *three*
 >  requirements under
 the present ICZN, and the Engel et  al. online paper
 > failed to comply with *two* of  them, not
 just one. Note  the following
 > (from
 >  http://iczn.org/content/electronic-publication-made-available-amendment-
 > code):
 > 
 >  " The requirements for
 >  electronic publications are that the
 work be  registered in ZooBank before it
 > is published,  that the work itself
 state  the date of  publication and contain
 > evidence that registration has  occurred,
 and that the ZooBank registration
 > state
 both the name of an  electronic  archive intended to
 preserve the work
 > and the ISSN or
 ISBN
 > 
 >  associated
 with the work."
 > 
 >  The online version of this
 >  work fulfills the first of these
 criteria,  but neither of the latter two.
 > 
 >  Sincerely,
 > 
 >  --
 >  Doug Yanega      Dept.
 >  of Entomology   
    Entomology Research  Museum  Univ. of
 California,
 > Riverside, CA
 >  92521-0314     skype:
 dyanega
 >  phone: (951) 827-4315
 (disclaimer: opinions are  mine, not UCR's)
 >                http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
 >     "There are some
 enterprises
 >  in which a careful
 disorderliness
 > 
 > 
    is the true method" - Herman Melville, 
 Moby Dick, Chap. 82
 > 
 > 
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 years of
 >  Taxacom in 2016.



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