[Zoobank-list] original descriptions

[Frank Krell]

May I take Professor Martinez Arbizu's comment (Schoene Gruesse nach Wilhelmshaven!) to raise another important, but so far rather neglected (since unresolved) aspect of ZooBank: original descriptions.
 
The original concept of ZooBank was a register which contains
1) all new names and bibliographic reference (got then extended to all nomenclatural acts which we found useful to include)
2) pdfs of all published original descriptions available for free
Also, the ICZN will maintain a paper archive of all original descriptions, housed in The Natural History Museum London, because (durable) paper is the only archival medium that has proven to survive centuries and changing technologies).
 
Copyright laws will prevent us from just uploading pdfs of papers containing descriptions into the online database. (Moreover, even without copyright problems this would require massive additional funding). However, we would like to pursue this idea as far as ZooBank is allowed to. Blackwell Publishing agreed to let us put online the original descriptions (not the complete paper) from their journals (as long as the scientific societies involved agree; the Royal Entomological Society did already). There are thousands of copyright owners around the globe. Copyright is a massive legal problem for making publicly available all original descriptions which will arrive in the office of ICZN. We have to discuss this problem very carefully and would need international legal advice if we want to find a solution without setting the professional publishing world against ZooBank.
 
Frank
 

Dr Frank-T. Krell
Head, Coleoptera Division
Head, Scarab Research Group
Editor, Systematic Entomology
Department of Entomology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD, U.K.
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7942 5886
Fax +44 (0) 20 7942 5229
f.krell at nhm.ac.uk

 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Pedro Martinez Arbizu [mailto:pmartinez at senckenberg.de] 
	Sent: Wed 28/09/2005 12:44 
	To: zoobank-list at afriherp.org 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [Zoobank-list] Congratulations
	
	

	Register of animal names
	
	My congratulations!
	The initiative of a global register of animal names is not only great, but
	it is the only way for taxonomy to survive this century. This register was
	needed since decades.
	Not only registration of names must be obligatory (I hope that journals will
	not publish in future new names without an entry code in your database), but
	also the descriptions of animals should be freely available. Only this will
	help to overcome the so called taxonomic impediment.
	Thanks for this initiative.
	
	Prof. Dr. P. Martinez Arbizu
	
	+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
	Prof. Dr. Pedro Martinez Arbizu
	DZMB- Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg
	Südstrand 44
	26382 Wilhelmshaven
	Germany
	
	Phone: +49 (4421) 9475 101
	Fax:   :  +49 (4421) 9475 111
	email: pmartinez at senckenberg.de
	
	
	
	--
	No virus found in this outgoing message.
	Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
	Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.7/112 - Release Date: 26.09.2005
	
	_______________________________________________
	Zoobank-list mailing list
	Zoobank-list at afriherp.org
	http://list.afriherp.org/mailman/listinfo/zoobank-list
	

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 6546 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.afriherp.org/pipermail/zoobank-list/attachments/20050928/150f20ee/attachment.bin