[NHCOLL-L:4876] Re: open for comment

[malcolm McCallum]

This will certainly be a useful publication if they meet the ICZN
guidelines.  I know the ICZN used to require hard copies be printed for the
description of new species to be valid, but I think they recently changed
this.  Zootaxa has been running an online journal for years and it is
currently (or last I heard) the largest journal in systematics.

The thing that bothers me is that just naming a species based on its
phylogeny is only a first step.  You cannot conserve a species any more than
you can digest a book's plot by simply knowing its name and position in the
organizational scheme.  There is so much more to know.  If the life
histories of these organisms goes unstudied, then having a name does little
other than indicates about as much as that friend of yours who has collected
tons of books and never read a one.  There is so much more to the biology of
an organism than its position in the systematic scheme.

malcolm McCallum

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 12:28 PM, Bryant, James <JBRYANT at riversideca.gov>wrote:

>  So the NMNH in Washington is touting the launching of two new on-line
> journals, Zookeys (perhaps should be Zoökeys?) and Phytokeys (see
> http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/smithsonian-scientists-address-world-biodiversity-crisis-innovative-online-publications).
> Looks like the idea is to get taxonomic revisions and updates into “print”
> as rapidly as possible. The editors claim this will not only serve the
> profession but help preserve biodiversity by “providing the public with free
> access to this vital information”. Any thoughts on the merits of this
> approach?
>
>
>
> James M. Bryant
>
> Curator of Natural History
>
> Museum Department, City of Riverside
>
> 3580 Mission Inn Avenue
>
> Riverside, CA 92501
>
> (951) 826-5273
>
> (951) 369-4970 FAX
>
> jbryant at riversideca.gov
>
>
>



-- 
Malcolm L. McCallum
Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology

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            and pollution.
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