Journal/Wiki publication and dissemination of a new taxon description

ZooKeys published a paper (Hendrich L, Balke M (2011) A simultaneous journal / wiki publication and dissemination of a new species description: Neobidessodes darwiniensis sp. n. from northern Australia (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Bidessini). ZooKeys 79: 11–20. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.79.803) showing simultaneous description of a new species and creation of a wiki page for the taxon on www.species-id.net. The link to the wiki page (www.species-id.net/wiki/Neobidessodes_darwiniensis) is published in the original description under the ZooBank’s LSID, so that readers may always link to the wiki page to see if there is a new information on the taxon there. Vice versa, readers of the wiki page will have always the possibility to link to the original journal description that will stay unchanged as in any other conventional journal article.

While the original authors should always be credited through citing the journal article, further contributors to the wiki page (either the authors themselves or other interested students of that taxon) may edit/add content and be credited consequently as well. Conseguent changes could be tracked by using the wiki "page history" option.

We consider that such an approach could help in resolving the lively discussed contradiction between the "fixed" character of conventional academic publications and the dynamic nature of scientific research and of Internet as media.

Species-id.net is a wiki-based environment that aims at creating species pages (descriptions, data on ecology, biology, distribution, keys, etc.) in addition to Wikispecies (catalogue) and Wikimedia Commons (image repository), as well as to any other biodiversity platform  that may wish to link to it. Species-id is expected to be used/edited mostly by biologists with professional interests in a particular taxon.