The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), was established in 1970 by the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS), to provide a unified taxonomic scheme for the confusing virus classification and nomenclature situation existing among the subdisciplines of virology. The Code and Data Subcommittee of ICTV has made substantial progress towards the development of a universal code for the description of virus characters but, because of some disparity among subgroups of virologists and changing technology, this work requires major revision and updating. The absence of a widely recognized set of standardized terms for characterizing all types of viruses has resulted in duplication of effort by groups outside the ICTV. These efforts to classify characteristics of plant, insect, microbial, and vertebrate viruses show striking similarity in content, although the precise terminology is far from standard. The Code and Data Subcommittee has taken the first steps toward unification of these various schemes through a survey of existing virus databases and by attendance at a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored "Workshop on Standardized Terminology of Virus Characteristics." It was the consensus of participants at this Workshop that the availability of standard descriptors would provide a "software independent" tool to facilitate database development and data exchange among virologists. This proposal to the NSF requests funding for generation and dissemination of this standardized terminology under the direction of the ICTV Code and Data Subcommittee. It is anticipated that this data set will be the foundation of a World Virus Database, the purpose of which would be to provide a standard international reference tool for editors, publishers, database developers, and the research community.
