[Taxacom] NZ Royal Society fails to object to suppression and censorship of science

[John Grehan]

Sorry Les, the R Soc action has nothing to do with Internet rubbish. This
is about suppressing and censoring scientific articles published in
reputable journals (e.g. Linnean Society, Journal of Biogeography,
Systematic Biology, Systematic Botany) and book publishers (e.g. OUP) - the
list goes on. The NZ R Soc is at a global historical milestone in that it
appears to be the first scientific society in the world to condone
suppression of science simply because some or other don't like it. The
claim on their website that "We support New Zealanders to explore, discover
and share knowledge." becomes a lie of truly Orwellian proportions. NZ
Science has entered into the realm of totalitarianism. George would have
understood.

On Mon, Aug 9, 2021 at 3:23 AM Les Watson <leswatson at westnet.com.au> wrote:

> John,
>
> In my scientifically active days, "publication" involved submitting
> research papers to international journals, to be refereed and accepted
> or rejected by acknowledged experts. My cv and those of other scientists
> of olden times (including taxonomists!) are meaningful in this context.
> With development of the Internet, anybody with access to a computer can
> "publish" anything, and thousands do, resulting in 'the literature'
> becoming swamped with rubbish. Where is the equivalent of 'Current
> Contents'? Perhaps the N.Z. Royal Society panel is trying
> (unsatisfactorily?) to address this very real problem. .......
>
> --
> Les Watson
> 10 Maitland Avenue, Little Grove,
> Albany, WA 6330, Australia
> Email: http://delta-intkey.com/contact/watson.htm
> Phone: +61 (8) 98 44 4398
>
>
> On 9/08/2021 6:05 am, John Grehan via Taxacom wrote:
> > Some of you may recall that some years ago several researchers published
> a
> > paper in Systematic Biology in which they called for the suppression and
> > censorship of a research program they opposed. That they felt it was OK
> for
> > scientists to openly admit to such practices is shocking enough, but now
> > the Royal Society Te Apārangi (New Zealand) has trashed its slogan "We
> > support New Zealanders to explore, discover and share knowledge" by
> > providing endorsement of suppression and censorship by their members
> > through a Panel that concluded that there was nothing wrong for their
> > members to do this. Perhaps others on Taxacome feel the same way,  that
> it
> > is OK  for scientists to actively engage in suppression. To me it is
> > horrifying, but perhaps I am in an ethical minority. Boggles the mind.
> >
> > John Grehan
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