[Zoobank-list] PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access

[Pape, Thomas]

> We Zoologist should make an amendment to the Code requesting that the
original description has to be open access as one criterium for a name
to become valid. 

No matter how desirable open access of original taxonomic descriptions
would be, this is not straightforward to build into the Code. Open
access defined as "free online access" would essentially mean that an
original description should be accessible from its date of publication
and be maintained as such forever (i.e., equivalent to the requirement
of permanency). Such would potentially interfere with the commercial
interests in products like books and book series (and several journals),
and even if the commercial aspects could probably be dealt with, we
would still have to deal with all the practicalities of deposition of
the digital product, i.e., the free online source. Again, even this can
be solved, and we will probably see some form of registration of names
materialise in the near future. But making open access of the
descriptions a requirement for availability of names would be a change
away from the "freedom of scientists to classify animals according to
taxonomic judgments" currently endorsed by the Code.

I would like to see better facilities for web-based taxonomy and digital
archiving, a plausible model for a names registry, and ample, long-term
funding for a greatly expanded ICZN-secretariat. 

And just for the precision of terms, the decision on which of the
"available" names are "valid" is a taxonomic one.

Thomas Pape
Natural History Museum of Denmark


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