Obscure Publications

[christian thompson]

Taxacomers, etc

The Wells & Wellington case involved 3 publications by 2 Australian =
herpetologists that proposed massive nomenclatural acts, which did greatly =
destabilize work on that fauna. The Australian Society of Herpetology thru =
its president requested that the International Commission of Zoological =
Nomenclature suppress the work, etc. After 5 years of comments, etc., the =
Commission ducked the issue by considering it to be "outside of its =
remit."  See Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 48: 337-388 (1991) for =
the final report.

In its non-ruling, the Commission said that it does not matter whether it =
is poor science, whether it is plagiarized science, whatever ..., so long =
it was printed with ink on paper and made available to some, then the =
nomenclatural acts therein must be considered valid.=20

Oh, well ...   As I said, I do hope Botany might do better ...

F. Christian Thompson
Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560
(202) 382-1800 voice
(202) 786-9422 FAX
cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov

>>> Gary Rosenberg <rosenberg at ACNATSCI.ORG> 03/16/99 11:34AM >>>
Chris:

I am not aware of the Wells & Wellington case. Could you cite the Opinion?
It certainly sounds like a case in which narrow legalisms won out over the
general needs of zoological nomenclature. The case that you just outlined,
in which you as a member of the editorial board of the journal could not =
get
a copy, might be a better test case for the commission.

Gary
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Rosenberg, Ph.D.                     rosenberg at acnatsci.org=20
Malacology & Invertebrate Paleontology    gopher://erato.acnatsci.org
Academy of Natural Sciences               http://www.acnatsci.org=20
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