[Taxacom] Fw: Article 16.2 of the ICZN

[Bollino Maurizio]

I'd say: it is irresponsible of reviewers to accept manuscripts that clearly 
don't follow the Code.

Maurizio


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Stephen Thorpe" <s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz>
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 10:40 PM
To: "Bob Mesibov" <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
Cc: "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Article 16.2 of the ICZN

>>The Code is voluntary
>
> That's an interesting assertion! Sure, nobody is pointing a gun at 
> taxonomists heads and saying "follow the Code, or die!", but it is 
> irresponsible of editors to accept manuscripts that clearly don't follow 
> the Code. Besides, taxonomists naming new taxa generally want their names 
> to be forever associated with the new name, but if I now go and publish a 
> one line note citing a type species for Mahajangasuchidae, then it will be 
> forever known as Mahajangasuchidae Thorpe! Also, not following the Code is 
> going to make the bioinformaticians dream database a whole lot harder to 
> create...
>
> Stephen
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Bob Mesibov [mesibov at southcom.com.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, 25 November 2009 10:36 a.m.
> To: Stephen Thorpe
> Cc: TAXACOM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Article 16.2 of the ICZN
>
> The Code is voluntary, and some taxonomists interpret that as 'relaxed'. 
> There are so many instances of non-compliance that there is very little 
> point in pursuing specific instances.
>
> In 2007 I pointed out that a paper published in a well-known systematics 
> journal contained invalid lectotype designations (see ICZN article 74.7). 
> One of the authors, a taxonomist, wrote to me as follows:
>
> 'Yes, you are correct, we did not follow 74.7.3 (nor did the journal 
> care). I expect more work will be done on the group and such 
> technicalities can be dealt with.'
>
> If you wanted to be unkind about the situation, you could say that there 
> are two sorts of taxonomists: those who do things properly, and those who 
> don't and expect the other sort to fix up the resulting mess. Such is 
> life.
> --
> Dr Robert Mesibov
> Honorary Research Associate
> Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
> School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
> Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
> (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
> Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html
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