[Zoobank-list] original descriptions

[Pedro Martinez Arbizu]

Well,

I think that we will need to convice publishers that descriptions of new taxa
(means descriptions of worlds biodiversity) are a remarkable part of human
heritage,and that only for this kind of information they could make an
expeption and be flexible with copyrights.  After a while we will publish
species descriptions only in journals that agree with that, anyway.

Pedro
 

> 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
> 	
> 	
> 	
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> 

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