The ZooBank Proposal and Mandatory Registration
The proposal
On 22 September 2005, an article appeared in Nature proposing an open-access Web register of all animal names, to be called ZooBank. The register would be administered by the ICZN and would begin filling on a voluntary basis. With the agreement of the taxonomic community, registration would become mandatory after amendments to the 4th edition of the Code, or after publication of the 5th edition, scheduled for 2008. If the amended or new Code requires mandatory registration, unregistered names appearing afterwards would have no standing in nomenclature.
The article also proposed retrospective registration of all existing zoological names and taxonomic actions. There would clearly be overlap of information between ZooBank, Zoological Record and biodiversity databasing projects such as GBIF-ECAT, ITIS and Ubio. ZooBank would link to all such projects and would provide the definitive naming authority.
The Nature article was signed by the Executive Secretary of the ICZN and more than 20 taxonomists and ICZN officials. A copy can be downloaded from the ICZN website.
Details
The ICZN and cooperating taxonomists and institutions have prepared a 10-page technical discussion paper detailing exactly how ZooBank would work. The paper can be viewed on the ICZN website. What follows are some highlights:
To register new names or nomenclatorial acts, an author first fills in an online form on the ICZN website (or posts the form) giving all relevant details. The ICZN checks the details, determining if the proposal meets Code provisions and checking to see if any of the new names are junior homonyms. If all is OK, the author receives a unique identifier code for each name and act. The codes and names/acts are held confidentially in ZooBank and are not accessible to other authors or the general public. When the author publishes the names/acts in accordance with the Code, the author provides the ICZN with a copy. This is checked by the ICZN Secretariat against the Code and the author's proposal. If all is well, the author receives a verification from the ICZN and registration is complete.
It is important to note that this procedure, like the Code itself, does not in any way infringe on taxonomic judgement, and does not bypass peer review. It simply expedites and centralises the recording of new names and taxonomic acts.
A second, more ambitious proposal is also under consideration by the ICZN. This would make the act of registration itself part of the publication process, so that, for example, the date of publication for taxonomic purposes is the date of registration, not the date on which the Code-required publication appears.
There is a great deal more in the technical discussion paper, and interested readers should look carefully at the detail.
What should we do?
The ICZN has asked taxonomists around the world to consider the ZooBank proposals carefully over the next year. A ZooBank discussion list has been set up specifically for this purpose. Taxonomists can also write directly to the ICZN with opinions and suggestions. The ICZN would also like to hear from groups such as SASB.
