[Taxacom] How good is peer review at a lot of PRINO journals ...

Raymond Hoser - The Snakeman viper007 at live.com.au
Fri Oct 4 06:45:05 CDT 2013


Dear all, I thought this may interest some of you in terms of the ethics of publications.
 
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full 

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> From: j.noyes at nhm.ac.uk
> To: xelaalex at cox.net; rjensen at saintmarys.edu
> Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 08:39:11 +0000
> CC: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity questions: Classifications
> 
> Hi Chris,
> 
> I completely agree with you.
> 
> If not the age of the group, then how about standardising it as a theoretical average number of generations per species, or some sort of index of hypothetical generation time, or index of generation time x genetic plasticity, or generation time x genetic plasticity  + perceived rate of extinction, or . . . . 
> 
> My brain hurts.
> 
> John
> 
> John Noyes
> Scientific Associate
> Department of Life Sciences
> Natural History Museum
> Cromwell Road
> South Kensington
> London SW7 5BD 
> UK
> jsn at nhm.ac.uk
> Tel.: +44 (0) 207 942 5594
> Fax.: +44 (0) 207 942 5229
> 
> Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about chalcidoids and more):
> www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Chris Thompson
> Sent: 03 October 2013 19:04
> To: Richard Jensen
> Cc: TAXACOM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity questions: Classifications
> 
> Sorry, Dick,
> 
> Yes, for different questions, we as scientists may use different measures, etc.
> 
> HOWEVER, it the case of your example, age-based ranked groups are also useful. For CURRENT biodiversity one would declare that family x with 999 surviving species is a highly successful clade, where as family z with only a single surviving species is NOT.
> 
> 
> Real example, horse-shoe crabs versus insects!
> 
> Oh, well ... 
> 
> From: Richard Jensen 
> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 12:28 PM
> To: Chris Thompson 
> Cc: muscapaul ; TAXACOM 
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity questions: Classifications
> 
> Could it be that the apparent discrepancy in biodiversity, as we perceive it, is that family Z has had just as many speciation events as family X, but has experienced extremely high rates of extinction?  If so, then knowing the age tells us nothing about biodiversity - the two clades, one with 999 surviving species, and one with 1 surviving species, could be the same age.
> 
> 
> Dick J
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 11:15 AM, Chris Thompson <xelaalex at cox.net> wrote:
> 
>   PAUL:
> 
>   The scientific question that we begin with was about biodiversity.
> 
>   And Hennig said to answer those kinds of questions, then groups based on
>   time are the best.
> 
>   So, under the Hennig system, one could say that family X which now contains
>   999 species is more biodiversity, has more speciation, etc., than family Z
>   which now contains only 1 species. BECAUSE the contents (species) of each
>   family represents a clade that has evolved over the SAME time period.
> 
>   But as I indicated in my Diptera example, comparison of the number of
>   species in Limoniidae versus Inbiomyiidae does not tell you anything about
>   biodiversity, speciation, etc. because those groups are not equivalent, not
>   comparable, etc.
> 
>   Oh, well ...
> 
>   Sincerely,
> 
>   Chris
> 
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: muscapaul
>   Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 10:27 AM
>   To: TAXACOM
>   Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity questions: Classifications
> 
>   Just out of interest: If actual age would (should?) be playing a role,
>   where do we then account for differences between taxa with highly divergent
>   generation time, like drosophilids with perhaps more than 10 generations
>   per year under favourable conditions and panthophthalmids which probably
>   take multiple years to develop? And then I am just considering taxa within
>   the same order where one might give rise to new taxa on a much shorter
>   absolute time scale than the other.
> 
>   Paul
> 
>   On 3 October 2013 12:59, Chris Thompson <xelaalex at cox.net> wrote:
> 
>   > So, for example, in Diptera, we now recognize a family which is a clade of
>   > some 10 thousand species and of some 200 million years old (Limoniidae)
>   > and
>   > another family of less than a dozen species and probably less than 5
>   > million
>   > years old (Inbiomyiidae).
> 
>   ...
>   >
>   > So, if one wants to derived scientific hypotheses from classifications,
>   > one
>   > must go back to clades and their age.
>   >
>   > Sincerely,
>   >
>   > Chris
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> 
> -- 
> 
> Richard Jensen, Professor
> 
> Department of Biology
> 
> Saint Mary's College
> 
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
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