[Taxacom] FW: Do rogue taxonomists need rogue publishers?

[mivie at montana.edu]

I was always taught that a professional receives a salary for doing what
she does, and an amateur does it for love of the activity, deriving no
monetary gain from it.  Thus Darwin was an amateur and Wallace a
professional.  These titles do not indicate who is better and who is
worse, just source of income.

In Coleoptera systematics, there are many excellent, well respected
amateurs and a few truly bad professionals.  I can say that in the
Coleopterists Society there are no distinctions in level of respect within
the members between amateur and professionals, just how good they are. 
The late Karl Stephan had no degree, never had a job as an entomologist,
and was respected and beloved to the very highest levels of the community
as a full colleague.  He was universally acknowledged as among the best.

Stephen, the Coleopterists Bulletin, Annals of the Entomological Society
of America, Entomological News, Canadian Entomologist, and Pan-Pacific
Entomologist publish peer-reviewed work on NZ Carabidae.  Submissions
welcome.

Mike Ivie



> Robin Leech wrote:
>> Question.  Does a professional have to have degrees, or can a
>> professional
>> be someone recognized by experts in the field as being another expert?
>
> * another question: can scientists really be professionals (bound by a
> collective code of occupational restrictions on the kind of phenomena
> they'll consider), or must they all be amateurs (motivated by the love
> for Truth, their field of phenomena, or their organisms)?
>
> And if a degree (presumably the Ph.D.) confers professional status,
> what's that profession other than amateurism, since philosophy is
> denominated as the love of truth?
>
> fred.
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