[CPN] Art. 22.10 (reply to David M.)

[David Marjanovic]

>> Besides -- I've been a bit  out of the loop -- what exactly is
 >> delaying the discussion about the species proposal? We don't seem
 >> to be waiting for the six months after publication that Art. 22.10
 >> appears to require; is that because the Code isn't implemented yet,
 >> or are we counting the publication on the ISPN website as opposed
 >> to that in Systematic Biology? (Art. 22.10: "Proposed modifications
 >> of this code may not be voted upon until at least six months have
 >> elapsed from the date of their publication, to allow for discussion
 >> by the systematics community and communication of opinions to the
 >> members of the CPN.")
 >
 > This is a good question. In my mind at least, the answer is that the
 > code isn't implemented yet, so Art. 22.10 doesn't apply. The CPN is
 > dealing with the CBM proposal in much the same way that it has dealt
 > with many others during the pre-implementation period. The approach
 > during this long development period has necessarily been less formal
 > than what will be required by Art. 22.10 after the code is
 > implemented. "Necessarily" I say because the post-implementation
 > process, while fine for occasional proposals for modification of
 > particular articles, is too slow and cumbersome to accommodate
 > development of whole new drafts.

I see, that's fine.

So, what _is_ delaying the discussion about the species proposal? Is 
there such general agreement that nobody thinks it's worth pronouncing 
it? :-)

> Come to think of it, I wonder  whether this process is too slow and
 > cumbersome even for the after the code is implemented. If
 > publication requirements are changed to include electronic
 > publication (and I agree with David and others that they should be),
 > it will speed up consideration of proposals somewhat, but a six-month
 > delay before a vote may be unnecessarily long.

I suppose this depends on whether we decide to allow online publication. 
Many journals take 6 months or more from acceptance (!) to printing; I 
guess that was the idea behind the 6-month delay. If we allow online 
publication, we could drastically shorten this.