Reaction to taxonomic reactionaries

There is a fairly scathing editorial in Nature [The new zoo. (2013). Nature, 503(7476), 311–312. doi:10.1038/503311b ] that reacts to a recent paper by Dubois et al.:

Dubois, A., Crochet, P.-A., Dickinson, E. C., Nemésio, A., Aescht, E., Bauer, A. M., Blagoderov, V., et al. (2013). Nomenclatural and taxonomic problems related to the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts in zoology, with brief comments on optical discs and on the situation in botany. Zootaxa, 3735(1), 1. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3735.1.1

To quote the editorial:

...there might be more than a disinterested concern for scientific integrity at work here. A typical reader of the Zootaxa paper (not that there are typical readers of a 94-page work on the minutiae of nomenclature protocol) might reasonably conclude that the authors have axes to grind. Exhibits A–E: the high degree of autocitation in the Zootaxa paper; the admission that some of the authors were against the ICZN amendments; that they clearly feel that their opinions regarding the amendments have been disregarded; the ad hominem attacks on ‘wealthy’ publishers as opposed to straitened natural-history societies; and the use of emotive and occasionally intemperate language that one does not associate with the usually dry and legalistic tone of debate on this subject. (The online publisher BioMed Central, based in London, gets a particular pasting, to which it has responded; see http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2013/11/15/the-devil-may-be-in-the-detail-but-the-longview-is-also-worth-a-look/.)

One of many recommendations made in the diatribe is that journals should routinely have on their review boards those expert in the business of nomenclature — in other words, a cadre of people who are, unlike ordinary mortals, qualified to interpret the mystic strictures of the code. A typical reader is again entitled to ask whom, apart from themselves, the authors think might be suitable candidates.

Ouch! But Dubois et al.'s paper pretty much deserves this reaction - it's a reactionary rant that is breathtaking in it's lack of perspective. From the abstract:

As shown by several examples discussed here, an electronic document can be modified while keeping the same DOI and publication date, which is not compatible with the requirements of zoological nomenclature. Therefore, another system of registration of electronic documents as permanent and inalterable will have to be devised.

So, we have an identifier system for publications which currently has 63,793,212 registered DOIs (see CrossRef), includes key journals such as Zootaxa and ZooKeys, and which has tools to support versioning of papers (see CrossMark) but hey, let's have our own unique system. After all, zoological nomenclature is special, and our community has such a good track record of maintaining our own identifier system (LSIDs anyone?).

Now that the financial crisis faced by the ICZN has been averted by a three-year bail-out by the National University of Singapore (for three years at least), maybe the guardians of scientific names can focus on providing tools and services of value to the broader scientific community (or, indeed, taxonomists). As it stands, the ICZN can say little about the majority of animal names. Much better to focus on that than trying to rail against the practices of modern publishing.

Why the ICZN is in trouble

There are many reasons why the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is in trouble, but fundamentally I think it's because of situation illustrated by following diagram.


Based on an analysis of the Index of Organism Names (ION) database that I'm currently working on, there are around 3.8 million animal names (I define "animal" loosely, the ICZN covers a number of eukaryote groups), of which around 1.5 million are "original combinations", that is, the name as originally published. The other 2 million plus names are synonyms, spelling variations, etc.

Of these 3.8 million names the ICZN itself can say very little. It has placed some 12,600 names (around 0.3% of the total) on its Official Lists and Indexes (which is where it records decisions on nomenclature), and its new register of names, ZooBank, has less than 100,000 names (i.e., less than 3% of all animal names).

The ICZN doesn't have a comprehensive database of animal names, so it can't answer the most basic questions one might have about names (e.g., "is this a name?", "can I use this name, or has somebody already used it?", "what other names have people used for this taxon?", "where was this name originally published?", "can I see the original description?", "who first said these two names are synonyms?", and so on). The ICZN has no answer to these questions. In the absence of these services, it is reduced to making decisions about a tiny fraction of the names that are in use (and there is no database of these decisions). It is no wonder that it is in such trouble.

The end of names? ICZN in financial crisis

Image by Mr.checker from Wikimedia Commons

Science carries a news piece on the perilous state of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (on Twitter as @ZooNom):

Pennisi, E. (2013). International Arbiter of Animal Names Faces Financial Woes. Science, 339(6122), 897–897. doi:10.1126/science.339.6122.897 (paywall)

Elizabeth Pennisi's article states:

A rose by any other name might still smell as sweet, but an animal with two scientific monikers can wreak havoc for researchers trying to study it. Since 1895, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) has helped ensure animal names are unique and long-lasting, with a panel of volunteer commissioners who maintain naming rules and resolve conflicts when they arise. But the U.K.-based charitable trust that supports all this is slated to run out of money before the year's end—and that could spell trouble. "If the trust ceases to exist it will be very difficult for the commissioners to do their work," says Michael Dixon, chair of the trust's board and director of the Natural History Museum in London. If ICZN disappeared "it would be something akin to anarchy in animal naming."

The sums of money are not huge:

The nonprofit organization that formed in 1947 to raise funds and administer the ICZN code and the journal—the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature—has weathered other crises. But net income from its journal is only about $47,000 a year, and the trust's annual expenses now top $155,000. So reserves are about to be exhausted, Dixon says.

A few weeks ago, he sent an e-mail plea to directors of natural history museums around the world for emergency relief. In it, he proposed establishing a committee that would come up with a new financial model for the troubled organization. "This is not unlike GenBank," the database of genome sequences that receives government support, Coddington says. "It's the same distributed goods [situation], that everyone needs and nobody wants to pay for."

...

Dixon estimates the trust needs $78,000 or more to make it through the year. No single organization may be able to fund it long-term, but a network of 10 or 20 institutions might be able to kick in enough to sustain it, he says.

Maybe it's time for the ICZN to start a Jimmy Wales-style appeal, or take taxonomy to KickStarter.

Sherborn presentation on Open Taxonomy

Here is my presentation from today's Anchoring Biodiversity Information: From Sherborn to the 21st century and beyond meeting.

Open taxonomy

View more presentations from Roderic Page

All the presentations will be posted online, along with podcasts of the audio. Meantime, presentations by Dave Remsen and Chris Freeland are already online.