Dear all,
A comment about the requirements for electronic publication under the ICZN (applicable since nearly two years ago).
I've noticed that several journals that often publish Polychaeta taxonomy online before print are not helping authors with ZooBank, and not registering 'efirst' pdfs with ZooBank.
The rules are quite simple and distil down to the minimum of (1) register the article in Zoobank, (2) record the registration details in the online pdf available at the journal site.
Authors can simply ask the journal to do this.
If you don't register the article at ZooBank then while your efirst article is only online, perhaps for months, and not in print, the new taxa names you think you've 'published' are not available names. Not only will the eventual date of true publication be much later than the initial efirst date, but there is a risk that your names (and your article) could meantime be plagiarised and published by someone else, and a rival by chance working on the same taxon or related taxa could pre-empt you with their own taxonomy or 'adopt' your conclusions, and in both cases their actions will be valid and have priority. Your names will be unnecessary synonyms! Not a big risk? Well, if you like to gamble then take the chance.
ICZN Art.8.5.3. [To be considered published, an electronic work must] be registered in the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (ZooBank) (see Article 78.2.4) and contain evidence in the work itself that such registration has occurred.
http://iczn.org/content/iczn-amendment-electronic-publication
Cheers,
Geoff
