NEWS RELEASE
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org 21 October 2008
ICZN AMENDMENT PROPOSED TO PERMIT ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION
Dear Herpetologists interested in nomenclature,
The ICZN rules governing availability of animal names require publication in a durable
medium. To date, that has been interpreted as including paper and 'hard' digital media
such as CD-ROMs, but this has become increasingly problematic as electronic publication
becomes more common. To address this issue, the International Commission on
Zoological Nomenclature is considering an amendment to the Code that will permit
electronic publication of new names and nomenclatural acts. A draft has been published
today in ZooTaxa, and will be followed by publication in other journals, including the
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. This initiates a year-long period for community input,
after which a final amendment will be drafted and voted upon by the Commission.
The published draft may be downloaded from the ICZN website at
http://www.iczn.org or the Zootaxa website at
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ The summary points are:
1. Electronic-only publications should be allowed, if mechanisms can be found that give
reasonable assurance of the long-term accessibility of the information they contain.
2. Some method of registration should be part of the mechanism of allowing electronic
publication of names and nomenclatural acts.
3. Physical works that are not paper-based (e.g. CD-ROMs, DVDs) should be disallowed.
We welcome your input on this important topic.
Best wishes,
Ellinor Michel
iczn@nhm.ac.uk
Pages: 1
