Ambiguity and possible inconsistency in reference elements in Name

[dhobern]

Name has the following elements:

• referenceID A pointer to a Reference indicating the original publication of the name in its given combination, not the basionym.
• publishedInYear The effective year the name was published, given as a 4 digit integer . This is the year that is nomenclaturally relevant.
• publishedInPage The exact single page number where the name was published. If the description spans multiple pages, the first page should be given.

For a combination, this is explicit that the referenceID should be for the location of the new combination. By implication, the same applies for the publishedInPage, although this should be made explicit in the documentation.

Does this mean that the publishedInYear should also be for the combination? If so, is the year really "nomenclaturally relevant"?

The documentation needs to be made explicit and consistent.

[mdoering]

Yes, it definitely means the year of publication of that combination. It is probably not relevant in zoology, but for botany I believe it is.

Any suggestion for a better wording?

[mdoering]

publishedInYear

The effective year the name was published, given as a 4 digit integer. It is the year that is nomenclaturally relevant for the given combination. In most cases this will be the same as the publication year given in the linked reference record via referenceID. But in some cases this might be different.