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Merge pull request #97 from OA-WCVP/qgroom-patch-5
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correcting reference
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nickynicolson authored Mar 28, 2023
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Expand Up @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Patterns of colonialism mean that the specimens associated with the naming of ne

Increasingly, digitisation is providing free open access to these specimens [@soltis_digitization_2017] and broadening their scientific use [@james_herbarium_2018; @lendemer_extended_2019]. However, it is necessary to build human and infrastructural capacity to properly document plant diversity in order to prioritise conservation action [@fazey_who_2005; @cheek_new_2020]. Recent work by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility’s Biodiversity Information for Development initiative (see [GBIF BID impact summary](https://assets.ctfassets.net/uo17ejk9rkwj/7ezmj33g285s8mRb1HTpE/36359b4b635e64f28a6ce3ff2b50fd89/191127-BID-Impact-Summary.pdf) has shown that by targeting underrepresented regions in digitisation efforts, numbers of threatened taxa available in globally accessed datasets can be significantly increased.

Although it could be argued that the taxonomic impediment is in part due to the shortage of taxonomists [@engel_taxonomic_2021], open access to information is also critical as it facilitates the training of researchers, the circumscription and recircumscription of taxa and provides the basis for further downstream analyses. Approximately two thousand vascular plant species are described as new to science each year [@nicolson_2017], and most of them are likely to have narrow distributions and to be threatened with extinction [@niclughadha_extinction_2020] or have uses not yet undercovered by plant scientists and others. In addition to new taxa, taxonomists work to understand and document relationships of plants, leading to name changes and recircumscriptions of taxa, in turn leading to new names.
Although it could be argued that the taxonomic impediment is in part due to the shortage of taxonomists [@engel_taxonomic_2021], open access to information is also critical as it facilitates the training of researchers, the circumscription and recircumscription of taxa and provides the basis for further downstream analyses. Approximately two thousand vascular plant species are described as new to science each year [@nicolson_impact_2017], and most of them are likely to have narrow distributions and to be threatened with extinction [@niclughadha_extinction_2020] or have uses not yet undercovered by plant scientists and others. In addition to new taxa, taxonomists work to understand and document relationships of plants, leading to name changes and recircumscriptions of taxa, in turn leading to new names.

Electronic publication of nomenclatural acts was, until 1st January 2012, not permitted; before that date all nomenclatural acts for algae, fungi, and plants had to be published in print on paper. The adoption of electronic publication by the community (at the Melbourne International Botanical Congress, see [@nicolson_impact_2017]) led to an increase in this method of publication, but did not substantially change patterns of taxonomic activity. During discussions over electronic publication leading up to and at the Melbourne Congress, there was conflation of electronic publication with Open Access publication [@knapp_changes_2011; @flann_report_2014]. This conflation led some to suggest that this change in the rules would be a watershed for access to information about the names of organisms, but this was not the case [@nicolson_impact_2017] - publication by electronic means and Open Access are very different things.

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