Declaration 46 – Amendment of Article 8

DECLARATION 46:

Article (Art. 8.8) is hereby added to the Code:
Permanence of available works. A work once published within the meaning of the Code remains so, unless the Commission rules otherwise. Any subsequent disclaimer or retraction of a work or parts of a work does not affect the availability of the original  work or any new name or nomenclatural acts contained therein.

The following new term is added to the Glossary:
retraction, n. The action, claim, or explicit attempt by which a published work, in whole or in part, is subsequently declared to have been removed from the public and permanent scientific record [Art. 8.8].

Explanatory note

Names and nomenclatural acts that became available when first published do not become unavailable when the original work has been retracted or a disclaimer has been issued after publication seeking to render any name or nomenclatural act in the original version unavailable. Once published and available, works, names and other nomenclatural acts can only be suppressed by the Commission, through a ruling made under its plenary power and published in an Opinion (Arts. 78.1, 80.2.2).

HISTORY OF THE PROPOSAL

1. On 26 February 2021, the ICZN President formed an ad hoc Committee on the issue of the nomenclatural status of retracted works. The Committee was composed of Commissioners Krell (Chair), Rheindt and Yanega. Its mandate was to draft a proposal for a clarification of the Code regulations to make it explicit that works once published in accordance with the requirements of the Code remain so and the new names and nomenclatural acts contained in them remain available in perpetuity, unless suppressed by a ruling made by the Commission under its plenary power.
2. Following the recommendations of the Committee and additional input from members of the ICZN, a first version of Declaration 46 was proposed and a vote was held under the Three-Month Rule, commencing 29 October 2021 and concluding 29 January 2022, to decide whether the proposed version constituted a major change to the Code and, if this was not the case, whether it may be issued in the proposed form.
3. The Commission voted in favour of Declaration 46 not constituting a major change to the Code, but voted against it being issued as proposed.
4. Following additional input from members of the ICZN, a revised second version was proposed and a second vote was held under the Three-Month Rule, commencing 23 May 2022 and concluding 23 August 2022, to decide whether the second version may be issued in its proposed form.
5. The Commission voted in favour of Declaration 46 being issued as proposed in its second version.
6. Declaration 46 was ratified by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) through an online vote in March 2023.