(195) Proposal to amend the Preamble by adding a “potentially sensitive content disclaimer and limitation of liability”

Abstract

Authors of several discussion articles (Gillman & Wright in Commun. Biol. 3: art. 609. 2020; Smith & Figueiredo in Taxon 71: 1–5. 2022; Wright & Gillman in Taxon 71: 6–10. 2022; Smith & al. in Taxon 71: 933–935. 2022; Thiele & al. in Taxon 71: 1151–1154. 2022) and formal proposals to amend the Code (Smith & Figueiredo in Taxon 70: 1395–1396. 2021; Hammer & Thiele in Taxon 70: 1392–1394. 2021) recently proposed to allow and endorse the rejection and/or replacement of scientific names of taxa that are considered to be “culturally offensive and inappropriate”, or even some other names, those supposedly not offensive and inappropriate but, e.g., reflecting the “colonial or imperialist past”. In my opinion, such proposals are mainly based on political, social, ethical and/or ethnocultural criteria, which are not currently considered as nomenclaturally decisive in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (“Code”: Turland & al. in Regnum Veg. 159. 2018) and other Codes of biological nomenclature. These ideas and proposals were extensively discussed (Knapp & al. in Taxon 69: 1409–1410. 2020; Gillman & Wright in Bionomina 25: 93–97. 2021; Smith & al., l.c.; Thiele & al., l.c.) and/or criticised in scientific journals (see Heenan & al. in New Zealand J. Bot. 59: 291–322. 2021; Palma & Heath in Bionomina 22: 32–38. 2021; McGlone & al. in New Zealand J. Bot. 60: 215–226. 2022; Mosyakin in Taxon 70: 1379–1380. 2021; in Taxon 71: 249–255. 2022; in Taxon 71: 1141–1150. 2022; in Taxon, https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12837. 2022). It is also worth considering that in its official communication on similar issues the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (Ceríaco & al. in Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 197: 283–286. 2023) concluded that “renaming taxa on ethical grounds threatens nomenclatural stability and scientific communication”. I understand and respectfully acknowledge that some vulnerable or emotionally sensitive people or groups of people consider some names of organisms governed by the Code as “offensive and/or inappropriate”. In such cases, a sensitive content disclaimer and a limitation of liability statement are desirable. In particular, I think that such an addition to the Code could be useful for safeguarding the authors and editors of the present Code, as well as all those who in good faith and for lawful purposes create, modify and/or use scientific names of organisms covered by this Code, against possible accusations and allegations. Similar content disclaimers are currently available in many publications and online resources, e.g. Wikipedia (General disclaimer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer; Content disclaimer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Content_disclaimer) and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (Acknowledgment of Harmful Content: https://about.biodiversitylibrary.org/about/harmful-content/). Further explanations and recommendations were provided by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions in their document of 2021 “Objectionable Third-Party Content: Library Responses” (https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1754). (All online resources accessed on 11 February 2023.) “Potentially sensitive content disclaimer and limitation of liability Scientific names of algae, fungi, and plants were created and modified over the centuries by many authors of various national, ethnic, cultural, religious, political, historical, and other backgrounds, identities, origins, and traditions. Such names reflect the rich but also complicated and sometimes controversial history of scientific explorations and biological nomenclature. Anyone using the scientific names of taxa governed by this Code should be aware that this Code is not intended for judging, evaluating, changing, rejecting, or censoring such names because of ethical, cultural, religious, political, social, ideological, and/or other principles, criteria, and procedures, except for those explicitly prescribed in this Code (see Preamble 1, 12, Art. 51.1). The authors and editors of this Code and anyone using scientific names of organisms in accordance with this Code in good faith and for lawful purposes shall not be held responsible for any discomfort, inconvenience, offense, mental and/or emotional distress, or other possible negative consequences potentially caused by some scientific names of taxa to any person or group of people who may consider such names objectionable, offensive, or inappropriate. The use of scientific names of taxa in accordance with this Code in good faith and for lawful purposes should not be viewed as manifestation, support, or endorsement of any cultural, religious, political, social, racial, or other views, concepts, prejudices, and/or ideologies that may be deemed objectionable, offensive, or inappropriate to some people or groups of people.” I am grateful to Nicholas J. Turland (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) and John H. Wiersema (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) for their useful comments and editing.