Names Attribution, Rights, and Licensing

globalnames.org

David PattersonSchool of Life Sciences

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

david.j.patterson@asu.edu

Scientific names

Mostly referring to species Binomial and author Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Binomial

Generic vehicle Species epithet Author of names Date of publication

Ideally - One valid name for a species, and each name used for only one species

Roles Traditional, as tokens for species (the global inventory),

overseen by taxonomists New, in an infrastructure to manage data

How many species and how many names?

Don’t know There is no single comprehensive compilation

Estimated 1,900,000 living species reported Estimated 300,000 extinct species reported Estimated 250,000 genera appropriate Estimated 30,000 suprageneric taxa appropriate

Global Names Index has 22,000,000 name-strings for names

Names are common knowledge Openly available in the scientific literature

Informaticians need to know all names The are associated with data Can be used as metadata To index content And build a names-based

cyber-infrastructure to interconnect data distributed across the internet

There are problems …9

Cyclotrachelus sodalis (LeConte, 1848) Bousquet, 1984

One taxon with one name Many lexical variants All legitimate This list is very incomplete

Koko

Горилла

Guerilla

Eastern Lowland Gorilla

Gorilla graueri

Gorilla berengei

Gorilla beringei MatschieGorilla beringei mikenensis

King kong

Gorilla gorilla

Virunga

Gorila

GorilleMountain gorilla

大猩猩

ゴリラ

VERNACULAR NAMES    Gorilla English Mountain Gorilla English Eastern Gorilla English Eastern lowland gorilla English Gorille des plaines orientales French Grauer’s gorilla English Горилла Russian Gorila Spanish Bergsgorilla German Låglandsgorilla Swedish Bwindi Kinyarwanda Virunga Kinyarwanda 大猩猩 Chinese ゴリラ Japanese

OBJECTIVE SYNONYMS Gorilla beringei Gorilla beringei Matschie, 1902 Gorilla beringei mikenensis Lönnberg, 1917

TyposGorilla berengei

SUBJECTIVE SYNONYMS Gorilla graueri Matschie, 1914 Gorilla beringei graueri (Matschie, 1914) Gorilla gorilla

KokoKing kongGuerilla

Resolution Services Using the name preferred by your favored taxonomic

source

Codes of nomenclature International Code of Zoological Nomenclature International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes International Code of Nomenclature of Algae, Fungi

and Plants

Determine how names are created (they have to be published in the public domain)

Manage alternative names (synonyms) Prevent re-use of same name (homonyms)

Names are overseen by taxonomists and nomenclaturalists

International Plant Name Index Index Fungorum List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in

Nomenclature ZooBank and various speciality nomenclators

Judicial Compile lists of names that are compliant with the

relevant Code Point to nomenclatural acts in the literature Are moving from paper to the e-world

Nomenclators

Names are overseen by taxonomists and nomenclaturalists

Taxonomists

Names are overseen by taxonomists and nomenclaturalists

Make judgments Discover and describe new species In compliance with the Codes of Nomenclature Review taxonomic knowledge (confirming, merging

or splitting previously described species) Create hierarchical lists of species (classifications) Provide citations for nomenclatural and taxonomic

acts

TaxonomistsNew recordsLiterature

Records

TaxonomistsRevisions

Domain compilations

Global Aggregators

End users

Taxonomic Process In the digital age, lists have been

compiled and aggregated in databases Built into compilations

(such as jellyfish of the world) Periodically revised by

taxonomists, the process includes judgments that incorporate priorjudgments

Created and managed by thousands of taxonomists

Records of 2.3 million species distributed in 500 million pages

Users need to access multiple sites

TaxonomistsNew recordsLiterature

Records

TaxonomistsRevisions

Domain compilations

Global Aggregators

Infrastructure

End users

The future All names to index all content Linked through a unifying

infrastructure Retaining the taxonomic value,

not repeating, just pointing to it

Alternative names reconciled

Offering resolution – the name according to a taxonomic authority

What is accessible, search, browse and download

What is accessible, search, browse and download

Impediments to infrastructural use of names

No complete list No comment system for improving quality (such

systems exist elsewhere) Reticence to allow content downloads Absence of web-services to ensure free and instant flow

of content Licensing constraints assume rights Uncertainty about legalities regarding

Names Compilations of names Data associated with names Opinions associated with names

Thankyou