Download ICZN Amendment_E-publication-PressReleaseV4

PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed: 7:00 GMT Tuesday 4 September 2012
Born Digital, Born Free? Taxonomic publishing comes of the digital age
International body responsible for animal scientific names passes landmark
amendment legitimising electronic publication for the first time
Following four years of highly charged debate, the rules for publication of scientific
names of animals have been changed to allow electronic publications to meet the
requirements of the stringent International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. In a
landmark decision, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN)
has passed an amendment to its rules that will accept an electronic-only publication as
‘legitimate’ if it meets criteria of archiving and the publication is registered on the ICZN’s
official online registry, ZooBank.
“For the past 250 years the simple, consistent system proposed by Linnaeus in his
Systema Naturae in 1758 has allowed worldwide communication about animals.
Keeping names sensible and stable is a key task for our ability to understand and
communicate about the living world. The change in ICZN publication rules is intended to
speed the process of publishing biodiversity information, to improve access to this
information, and to help reduce the ‘taxonomic impediment’ that hinders our cataloguing
of the living world. This really is an important development for the ICZN, and parallels a
similar, though less far-reaching, decision in botany. The expectation is that this has
modernised and further democratised taxonomy, though some scientists see the move
as a risky experiment in unmooring a previously well-anchored system of linking
publications, names and taxonomic concepts. Whether electronic archiving stands the
test of time, as have paper-based libraries, remains a concern for some scientists.” said
Dr Ellinor Michel, Executive Secretary of ICZN.
The decision has not been without controversy because the rules of the ICZN are
considered, and intended, to be among the most rigorous for scientific publication. The
task of keeping correct information on animal names is immense and critical, as almost
all information on the living world is linked through names. Animals comprise the vast
majority of the world’s recognised living species and currently stands at around 1.9
million, growing at a rate of about 20,000/year. For each of these groups there are as
many as 2–10 legitimately published names due to past debate and poor information
exchange. Estimates of the total of living animal biodiversity are 4–20 times this number
(8–50 million species), with fossils adding many more. When the task of cataloguing
biodiversity approaches completion, this vast amount of information will be linked
through names.
The new decision means that the difficulty in naming some species such as the case of
Darwinius masillae can be avoided. In 2009 a fossil discovery was announced that was
supposed to profoundly change our views on human evolution. The 47 million year old
fossil nicknamed ‘Ida’, was published in the electronic journal PLoS One. The publishers
had an 11th hour realisation that this publication would not be legitimate under ICZN
rules. The name could even have been scooped by an unscrupulous author. A ‘special
paper copy’ of the journal had to be published, which would not be needed under the
new rules.
“ZooBank is a major step towards completing the Linnaean enterprise, which is essential
for mapping Earth's still poorly known fauna. With the firm foundation of an authority on
scientific names, the rest of biology will be immensely strengthened, and humanity
correspondingly benefited" commented Professor Edward O. Wilson, a leading authority
on biodiversity.
Georgina Mace OBE and Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems Univ. College
London said "This is a hugely significant step for animal conservation. With ZooBank in
place we will all have access to a single reference list of animal names, and so
discussions about priority species and habitats can proceed with greater clarity and
speed."
The ICZN ruling is explicit that while the publication can exist in an electronic-only
format, it must still be published through a recognised scientific journal. Purely web
options such as blog posts, forums, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Scratchpads and other
potentially ephemeral, unarchived web-only sources still do not qualify as legitimate
publications under the new ICZN rules.
“The new rules will open the door to electronic publication and facilitate a truly webbased taxonomy. The next few years will be interesting times for scientific publishing
as the debate resolves between expediency and durability.” said Dr Michel.
Notes to editors
The official amendment and brief discussion are available from:
Zootaxa : http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/list/2012/3450.html
Zookeys: http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/3944/
Published input and the 2008 draft amendment: http://iczn.org/content/availabilityelectronic-publication
A copy of the amendment and can be requested from E. Michel, contact below.
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Most of the world’s described taxa are animals (1.8 million), this work of the
ICZN is of global importance for communicating about the living world.
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The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an
international body of experts on scientific nomenclature who act as the arbiter on
scientific names of animals. The Commission’s job is to ensure names of animals
are stable and universal by applying the rules of the International Code of
Zoological Nomenclature, or occasionally by overriding the rules of the Code to
better serve stability. www.iczn.org
The Commission is a body of 28 international specialists (who give their
service voluntarily), and a small secretariat, housed in the Natural History
Museum, London, who work towards a common, stable language of scientific
names which can be used worldwide, and an open system of problem-resolution
in cases of uncertainty or dispute. The ICZN publishes a code of rules so that
most problems can be solved by taxonomists directly. In exceptional
circumstances researchers can apply to the ICZN to override the rules, the
equivalent of taking an issue to court. Cases of this sort go through a process
similar to a legal trial, with a formal presentation of the case, a period of public
input similar to open testimony, and judgment by the ICZN.


The Natural History Museum is an award-winning tourist attraction and also a
world-leading science research centre. Through its collections and scientific
expertise, the Museum works to help understand and maintain the richness and
diversity of our planet, with ground-breaking partnerships in more than 70

countries and the largest collection of type specimens in the world. For more
information go to www.nhm.ac.uk
ZooBank is the official ICZN online registry for scientific names of animals,
an authority for zoological nomenclature, and an information hub, or backbone,
providing a dynamic web nomenclature for all other web-bioinformatics systems
www.zoobank.org

The decision has wide-reaching effect in scientific publishing. The number
of scientific journals containing new nomenclatural acts on scientific names of
animals numbers is currently estimated to be over 3000.

Type specimens—the gold standard:
Biologists’ interpretation of how the diversity in the living world is structured into
species is made solid through physical standards called type specimens, one or
more for each species. A type specimen nails down the correct use of a name to
a standard example of a species to make it indisputable. Taxonomy, in contrast
to nomenclature, is the science that interprets biological data to test hypotheses
of what makes up a taxon (such as a species or genus) and to determine its
boundaries. Although fierce debate may surround the range of organisms
correctly included within any single species, nomenclature governed by the ICZN
ensures that a single correct name is available for the stable standard, the type
specimen. Intentionally, nomenclature is as rigorously distinct from the fluid swirl
of taxonomic interpretation as is possible.
Museums are the main repositories of type specimens, with a key role of
providing the archives of types that keep biological information anchored to
organisms. To do their work properly, taxonomists need to refer to the preexisting type specimens and to the oldest published literature when they revise
the taxa in a group of organisms. This requires access to information on the
types, as well as access to all the previous taxonomic publications on their
animals. Good taxonomic work requires reference to museum collections and
libraries.

The rules of nomenclature are similar, but ruled by separate codes, for
zoology, botany and bacteria. The botanical code (now renamed the
International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN)) changed
its rules on publication earlier this year as well, allowing e-publication without any
additional requirements for archiving or registration. Under the ICB, legitimate
publication of new plant names requires only generation of a PDF document
published in a journal with ISSN or a book with ISBN. The date allowing this
transition was 1 January, 2012, which is now, with the current ruling, matched by
the amendment to the zoological code. The scale of the nomenclatural challenge
is considerably smaller for plants, however, as to date only about 260,000 plant
and 100,000 fungi species have been described.

The bacterial code (International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB)) has
very different requirements, as all new nomenclatural acts need to be published
in one of two journals, tightly linked to their Code. Moreover, the bacteriologists
decided to essentially amputate the historical legacy of research with most work
before 1980 being deemed unrecoverable. Only about 9260 bacterial and
archaebacterial names are regulated by the ICNB, as there is also a requirement
that named taxa have a type culture. Much of bacterial diversity is not known to
be culturable, thus can not have a type culture, thus is outside of the bacterial
nomenclatural system.
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Work is now on-going to bring together the different nomenclatural codes,
primarily through development of tools in common. The development of ZooBank
and a registration system for fungi, which will become mandatory in January
2013, has happened in tandem, using the same web architecture, with tight
collaboration of the prime authors. This, and other projects to unify the codes in
practice, is being helped by an International Committee on Bionomenclature
(ICB).
For more information, images or interviews, please contact
Dr Ellinor Michel, Executive Secretary, ICZN
Tel: +44-207-942-5653 or mobile +44-750-607-1547
Email: [email protected]
Claire Gilby, Senior Press Officer, Natural History Museum
Tel: +44-207-942-5654 or mobile +44-779-969-0151
Email: press @nhm.ac.uk
.