Consensus Workflow (Working Group and CHAH)

• A draft document is compiled based on the instructions below.When the draft list is completed it's sent out to the Working Group. At this stage questions for attention are marked in yellow. See http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/interim/Acanthaceae.pdf for an example.

• A deadline for return is identified with the proviso that silence is considered to be agreement. Multiple copies of the list are returned from members of the working group. Each with comments from the member (so theoretically up to eight [?] versions) usually in Track Changes or highlighted text may be received.

• The feedback is "harmonised", which in practice means that each version is checked one by one and the changes incorporated; unless we run into a situation where there are varying points of view and a consensus solution needs to be found.Generally consensus is resolved via majority-rule, e.g. if four states recognise a taxon and three synonymise it, the recognized concept would be selected and an APC text comment included noting the states that do not accept it.Once all the feedback is incorporated (which sometimes takes some individual back-and-forth with the working group) the final working group version is sent to CHAH for approval, with a deadline and the silence=assent statement. Once the list is finalised it's added to the website as a PDF (http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/interim/Zingiberaceae.pdf) and when someone is available the data entry begins...

Basic APC Compilation Instructions

• Identify Families/Genera etc that have had revisions published since the last APC revision.
• Compile lists of these in Microsoft Word. To begin, make sure the APCList.dot template is installed on your computer. This template is formatted as we want the lists to be (with set margins, page numbers, fonts and sizes etc.). The most important aspect is the styles contained in the template.
• Take an extract of a given family (or genus or group) from http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/databases/apni-search-names-only.html (No longer works, extracted TAXON_NAME, FAMILY using V_APNI). Need to identify a new way to do it.
• Paste this extract into a document based on the template “APClist.dot” (File->New and either choose APClist.dot from “Recent Templates”, or click “Templates on my Computer” and find it that way). When pasting, use Edit->Paste Special->Unformatted Text to avoid bringing across any styles from the web page).
• The styles are named in a fairly self-explanatory fashion. A family entry has the style “Family”, a genus has the style “Genus” and so on.
• Sample layout (extract) to show use of the APC styles:

and so on...

• The easiest way to compile is from a recent revision, especially if we’ve been provided it electronically (e.g. from ABRS Flora draft mss.). A quick search for the family/group in the full version of APNI at http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni (source for this needs updating) will generally indicate if a revision is available. Failing this, we generally start from the State and Territory censuses. These are all either available online or as PDFs (let us know if you don’t have access). Mark all the names listed in a census as accepted, and add any listed synonyms and the distributional information. Any names left over at the end should be investigated in more detail and/or referred to an expert in the group if possible. Some may well end up as excluded or doubtful names—please consult with us on this, as we have standardised wording for dealing with the usual cases.
• A guiding principle is that if something has taken you a lot of legwork to sort out, add an APC comment. When the list is entered (possibly months later), the databasers may well ask you if something isn’t obvious to them. Common questions include “Why is this nom. illeg.?”, “Where was this published?”, “But APNI says the author is...”, and by this time you are unlikely to remember. It’s also a good idea to save any copies of important references you made if these weren’t readily available in standard literature (e.g. in Australian herbarium journals etc.). These can be sent to us for the APC archives in Canberra.
• Author abbreviations are those in Brummitt & Powell, as updated in IPNI. Journal and book abbreviations generally follow BPH and TL/2 respectively, although it’s not essential to abbreviate these really. APNI will have the full version of the title, so just be sure you’re clear and give complete details (volume, part, page/s, figure numbers etc.) when citing references.
• Every name in APNI must be accounted for. This includes orthographic variants, invalid names, autonyms, isonyms and phrase names. Note that orthographic variants and isonyms are generally only mentioned in the comments in APNI e.g. “as Centosteca”, or “Combination also published by Mueller in...”. Make sure that names that are obviously new combinations list at least the basionym in synonymy. This means that you have to look closely at the full entries in APNI. Phrase names (for some reason) do not appear in the Names Only output, and you will need account for these by checking the full APNI output.
• Note however that APNI does include some Australasian names (mostly New Guinea, New Calendonian taxa). These do not need to be included in APC, unless they also occur in Australia and/or there is a reference to them in the Australian literature. Also, the APC process does not deal with infrageneric ranks, because would be a mammoth job in itself. The only exception is when a section or subgenus or the like is the basionym or a taxonomic synonym of a now-accepted genus. We basically delete the names sections, subgenera, series and the like unless they can be placed in synonymy somewhere.Conversely, there is no need to list every synonym included in an overseas revision if the names have never been applied to Australian material or in an Australian context.
• Don’t expect APNI to be right 100% of the time. It’s pretty darn good, but things did occasionally get missed or mixed up. If comments in APNI seem contradictory, it may be worth trying to go back to the protologue where possible to sort it out from first principles.
• A lot more references have been digitised since APNI was originally compiled, which makes our job much easier. We use http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ and http://www.botanicus.org/ extensively. Failing these, sometimes a Google search will turn things up in Google Books or http://www.archive.org
• If you can’t find a reference online or in your institution’s library, it may be in our CSIRO library system. You can check the catalogue at http://voyager.its.csiro.au/ We also have relatively easy access to the DEWHA Central Library and the ANBG Library, so check their catalogues at http://www.environment.gov.au/about/library/index.html
• You can consider an inter-library loan, but please check with us first, as we also have some good contacts overseas thanks to our participation in IPNI. We only really go to the ABLO or inter-library loans for things where the protologue/reference is vital for interpretation—we do generally rely on APNI unless we have conflicting information from elsewhere and really need to sort it out. If someone points out that we’re wrong, it can always be revisited.
• There should be no need for you to examine specimens or to delve too deeply into knotty nomenclatural or taxonomic issues. This is a job for an expert in the group or the Working Group members in the jurisdiction concerned. Remember we are just trying t o represent the current state of knowledge in Australia, not to revise the taxa ourselves.
• Handy websites:

ICBN http://www.ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm
IPNI http://www.ipni.org (for names, correct author abbreviations, publication details)
GRIN http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxgenform.pl (for names, esp. N. American)
TROPICOS http://www.tropicos.org (for names, esp. N. American)
ING http://botany.si.edu/ing/ (for generic-level issues)
TL/2 http://tl2.idcpublishers.info/ (for book publication details and abbreviations, free access for IAPT members, may have to check with your librarian)
BPH http://fmhibd.library.cmu.edu/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=BPH_Online&-loadframes (for journal publication details and abbreviations)

• Distribution order:  WA, CoI, ChI, AR, CaI, NT, SA, Qld, CSI, NSW, LHI, NI, ACT, Vic, Tas, HI, MDI, MI
• Some distributions will be qualified with “(naturalised)”, “(sparingly naturalised)”, “(doubtfully naturalised)”, “(formerly naturalised)”, “(extinct)”. The species/infraspecies distributions are then “added up” to form the generic distributions. We have a specific method for doing this and can send a diagram if needed.

Links to APC information

http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/

http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/about-APC.html

http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/contributors.html

http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/apc/families-treated.html