[Taxacom] Article 8 compliance

[John Noyes]

Hi everyone,

I thought it might be of interest to at least some of you with regards to changes of so-called versions of record and how some journals are doing this to make an article compliant with Article 8 of the ICZN.

On several occasions recently I have noted that some journals that have changed their publication from print and e-publication to e-publication only, often without any indication that they have done so. In at least two cases, the new, e-only journals have published articles that included novel nomenclatural acts. The publisher stated on their web site and/or on the article itself that it was the final version/version  of record. In these cases the articles were not Article 8 compliant as neither included evidence of preregistration on ZooBank. A while later (in both cases the following year) the publisher reissued the same article with the same DOI, journal title, volume and page numbers with a statement hidden away in the text that the article had been preregistered on ZooBank, thus changing the version of record (final version) and consequently the status of the new names proposed therein. Being the custodian of a well-used on-line taxonomic database I had initially included the new names in the database as unavailable because they were non-code compliant. Had I been unaware of the change to the so-called versions of record they would have remained that way. Luckily, during a subsequent visit to the publisher's web site I became aware of the changes. In such cases I believe that if a publisher changes the version of record in any way they must republish it as a separate article compiled in a different volume with different pagination and with a different DOI so that the correction does not go unnoticed. Has anyone else come across similar cases?

John

John Noyes
Scientific Associate
Department of Life Sciences
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London SW7 5BD 
UK
jsn at nhm.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0) 207 942 5594
Fax.: +44 (0) 207 942 5229

Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about chalcidoids and more):
www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids