[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Bob Mesibov]

Hi, Jason.

"...maybe it it would have been more constructive to send a nicely worded letter to the journal and the authors suggesting that they publish an addendum in the next issue that is more code compliant."

Don't know about 'constructive'. My first thought was to send a strongly worded letter to the ProcRoySocB editor in chief, pointing out that they'd published a turkey online and that before it hit print the article should be pulled and rewritten either (a) with the diagnoses transformed or (b) the pseudotaxonomy removed. Recent experience with editors and other influential non-scientists suggests I would have received a reply something like this one:

'Thank you for your comments. All our articles are peer-reviewed before publication by an editorial board consisting of leading experts in the field. In this particular case no editor or reviewer saw any problem with the taxonomic section of the article and it was therefore published as submitted.'

Leache and Fujita work in the USA, but published in a UK journal. The infamous New Zealand work which saw Onychophora names based on allozyme patterns was published in a Linnean Society (UK) journal. Perhaps the well-documented decline in taxonomy in the UK (see the two House of Lords reports, inter alia) has created a more relaxed attitude towards taxonomy there...
-- 
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