Proposed Amendment of Articles 8, 9, 10, 21 and 78 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to Expand and Refine Methods of Publication

For 250 years, taxonomists have relied on having access to physical copies of published works in order to verify information about taxa. The difficulty of tracking down publications can be a substantial impediment to taxonomic work, which has led some researchers to advocate modifying the codes of nomenclature, for plants and bacteria as well as for animals, to allow electronic publication of scientific names (Knapp et al., 2007; Wheeler and Krell, 2007). Electronic publishing and access to online information can clearly accelerate progress in taxonomy (Wheeler, 2008). Even when the fourth edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999) was published, it was clear that electronic publication could not be ignored (Ride, 1999, 2003). In all fields of science, however, long-term access to digital information has been and remains a significant concern (Anonymous, 2001; Howe et al., 2008; Szalay, 2008). Botanists have rejected proposals for electronic publication because of concerns for archiving and security from tampering (Zander, 2004; McNeill, 2006). Although some works printed on paper are rare, the number of instances in which no copies are known to survive is vanishingly small, so it certainly has been possible to reliably archive paper copies. Will we be able to say the same for electronic works 100 years from now? Can we have both rapid and effectively permanent access to publications and the information they contain? The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) considered these issues at a special session in Paris, August 23-25, 2008, preceding the XXth International Congress of Zoology (ICZ). The Commissioners voted to start the process required to amend the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature to allow electronic publication of new scientific names and other nomenclatural acts. A summary of the draft amendment was presented at the ICZ on August 27, during the Systema Naturae 250 symposium. The draft amendment was then refined via email discussion among Commissioners during the following month. In Paris, Commissioners voted separately in favour of three principles relating to publication. None of these passed unanimously, but all had at least a two-thirds majority among the twelve voting.