[Zoobank-list] ZooBank as solution for electronic publications

[Frank.Krell at dmns.org]

Dear Commissioners et al.,

I am sure that Thomas's "Yes, definitely" for "robust" electronic
archiving as an alternative to durability of physical copies is NOT
shared by everybody which is dangerous and might be fatal for the ICZN.
If we don't accept electronic publications, we are in danger to be
considered irrelevant not so far in the future - at least by donors and
funding agencies. Electronic publication is or soon will be mainstream.
At the same time, electronic publications are NOT archival independently
(because they need a technical interface to be human-readable).

This topic is probably the most pressing to discuss, and a solution has
to be found sooner than later.

I am sure that everybody will be more confident if there is at least one
obtainable physical copy available, still in times when pdf, DOS,
Windows, CD drives, Linux and Microsoft are long gone.

The easiest solution for electronic-only publications to turn available
for nomenclatural purposes is ZooBank. Let's start ZooBank with
electronic-only publications!

Solution to electronic publishing: Electronic-only publications need to
be registered to be nomenclaturally available. Registering contains
sending a copy of the publication (or at least of the nomenclatural
acts) to ICZN where it will be archived electronically in ZooBank and
physically as print-out on archival paper. This registration is
MANDATORY. It is completely up to the publishers whether they publish
electronic-only (easy) or produce simultaneous numerous paper-copies
(complicated and expensive). Nobody is forced to register their names if
a print run is produced. If publishers want to avoid this hassle, well,
then they or their authors have to register their names/nomenclatural
acts in ZooBank. At the moment, this is not much volume to deal with and
as such a good start for the whole registration business. It is a good
way to introduce mandatory registration because it will be seen as a
relief (no expensive paper copies have to be produced any more), and not
as an obstacle.

I have formulated changes in the Code necessary to allow mandatory
registration in the technical discussion paper in Bull. Zool. Nom.
62(4), on p. 213 (on the ICZN webpage and at
http://www.dmns.org/NR/rdonlyres/4491570A-3A43-4132-B137-2A4095EFAB4B/21
53/110BZN2004.pdf). This is just over one page. I will work on a version
for electronic publications since mandatory registration for ALL
nomenclatural acts/names is currently not an option.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Frank


Dr Frank T. Krell 
Curator of Entomology 
Editor, Systematic Entomology 
Commissioner, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 
Department of Zoology 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Boulevard 
Denver, CO 80205-5798 USA 
Frank.Krell at dmns.org 
Phone: (+1) (303) 370-8244 
Fax: (+1) (303) 331-6492 
http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Science/ScientificExperts/Biographie
s/krellFrank.htm 





-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Pape [mailto:TPape at snm.ku.dk] 
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 3:12 PM
To: Gary Rosenberg; mkottelat at dplanet.ch; Denis Brothers; LIM LEE HONG
SUSAN; Richard Pyle; BruceHalliday; Frank T. Krell; Pavel Stys; Daphne
Fautin; Zhi-QiangZhang; Mark Grygier; Laszlo Papp; David Patterson;
iczn-em; Sven Kullander; Peter Ng; Nina Bogutskaya; Shunsuke Mawatari;
Sandro Minelli; Gerardo Lamas; Nina Bogutskaya; Miguel Angel Alonso
Zarazaga; Philippe Bouchet; Jan van Tol
Subject: RE: Progress toward amendment on electronic publishing

Gary asked:

"Would commissioners be satisfied with robust archiving as an
alternative to durability of physical copies?"

My answer is: "Yes, definitely".

A major obstacle to moving forwards with electronic publication
certainly is the inherently much more ephemeral nature of electronic
publications. Archiving is therefore crucial, but I think that we are
now advanced to a level where 'robust' electronic archives DO exist. The
Dark Archive solution looks acceptable to me.

But apart from archiving, we would still need to define what exactly is
an electronic publication - or in other words: what should and what
should not be archived? 

/Thomas Pape


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