key: cord-0900233-jnbnvaop authors: Mayo, M. A.; van Regenmortel, M. H. V. title: ICTV and the Virology Division News date: 2014-12-05 journal: Arch Virol DOI: 10.1007/s007050070071 sha: 640023222b74e9b8589662c2ca55ee174460c960 doc_id: 900233 cord_uid: jnbnvaop nan A recent critique of some aspects of the affairs of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) [3] suggests that the link between ICTV and the papers that appear in Virology Division News (VDN) concerning virus taxonomy is unclear. This note is intended to clarify this link and also to illustrate how it has operated in the last several years. The constitution of ICTV stipulates that a primary purpose of ICTV is to communicate the results of its deliberations to virologists at large [5] . Whilst this has been, and is, done by preparation of Reports, for example Murphy et al. [6] and van Regenmortel et al. [9] , there are intervals between Reports when decisions are made and issues are raised that cannot wait for their resolution until the next taxonomic report is published. Archives of Virology is the official journal of the Virology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS) and ICTV is a committee of the Virology Division of IUMS. Thus ICTV is entitled to use the pages of Archives of Virology that are designated for use as "Virology Division News". In practice, most of the material in VDN is ICTV business and to reflect this one of the ICTV Secretaries acts as the editor of these pages of Archives of Virology. Articles report the outcomes of meetings of the Executive Committee of ICTV and of the triennial Plenary Meetings, as well as updates to the Statutes of ICTV and the International Code of Virus Taxonomy and Nomenclature (see Table 1 ). The Executive Committee recently resolved to increase its efforts to provide virologists with the background to the decisions taken by ICTV. Articles in VDN are the most suitable means of fulfilling this intention; there have been such articles in previous editions (see Table 1 ) and more are planned. VDN has carried papers that have been designed to provoke discussion prior to a decision being taken. It has also carried papers that have contained critical comment on what ICTV has done. The recent series of papers that have arisen as reaction to changes in the Rules concerning orthographic conventions [1-4, 7, 8] are a clear illustration of this role. Decisions as to how long to sustain a "debate" of this type, and indeed whether or not a particular paper needs an invited response, are taken by the editor. To illustrate the scope of articles in VDN, Table 1 presents titles of VDN articles from the last 10 years that have been related to taxonomic matters. Articles have come mainly from within ICTV as they are written by Study Group Chairs or Executive Committee members mainly in order to inform virologists of ICTV decisions. However, this is not exclusively so. Articles may be submitted by anyone at any time to the Editor. These will be considered, possibly with solicited opinions from experts within ICTV. It is important to emphasize that this process does not preclude articles critical of ICTV, as for example those recently by Bos [1, 2] and Gibbs [3] . The key requirement is that what is discussed be relevant to the work of ICTV. The naming of viruses: an urgent call to order Structure and typography of virus names Virus nomenclature descending into chaos Constructing and writing the names of virus species -an editorial note Virus taxonomy -1997 Virus Taxonomy. Classification and Nomenclature of Viruses. Sixth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses Editorial -virus nomenclature On the relative merits of italics, Latin and binomial nomenclature in virus taxonomy Virus Taxonomy. Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses