[Taxacom] morphology in molecular phylogeny

[Doug Yanega]

Mike Ivie wrote:

>Bad science is bad science, and happens in every field.  It is a
>reflection of the scientist, not the technique.

[snip]

>I know people who do good work in molecular systematics who are also
>excellent taxonomists.  I also know people who do terrible work in
>morphological systematics who are morphologists.

I would suggest, then, that what we need more than anything is an 
improvement in the rigor and quality of peer review. Obviously, the 
status quo is letting too much garbage into the pipeline, if bad 
science "happens in every field". People doing "terrible work" should 
NOT be able to get it into print, EVER. It is an embarrasment and our 
collective shame that things should be otherwise.

The counterargument - that only by allowing *everything* into print 
can science be advanced (i.e., some things which initally appear 
ludicrous may turn out to be true) - would only hold sway with me if 
there were some sort of accountability built into the system; that 
is, if the criticisms of a published work were included with it, so 
anyone encountering the work would know what the scientific community 
thought of it. As is, people seem to assume that anything in print is 
proven fact, and unassailable. It is impossible to tell, at present, 
whether any given work one finds in the literature is (1) agreed with 
by 99% of the scientific community (2) disagreed with by 99% of the 
scientific community, or (3) completely contentious, with two equal 
but opposed camps supporting/denying its accuracy.

This is another reason to rethink how scientific publication is 
handled; were it all done digitally, postscripts with supporting or 
refuting evidence from other scientists could be appended in real 
time to all publications. That way, bad science could still get into 
print, but once there, there would be big red flags warning everyone 
as to just how bad it is. Let the reader decide who to listen to, but 
give them all the evidence and arguments up front.

Sincerely,
-- 

Doug Yanega        /Dept. of Entomology         /Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82