[Taxacom] panbiogeography suppression example

[John Grehan]

As mentioned in one of my postings, the act of suppression is usually
hidden (which is why the Royal Society position is so intriguing). But one
example that came to light back in the 1980's concerned a paper that Robin
Craw wrote on the classic problems of biogeography. This was submitted to
the german journal of zoology via one of the associate editors - Niels
Kristensen who will be well known to Lepidoptera systematists on the list.
Kristensen was interested in raising the profile of the journal and thought
Craw's paper to be eminently suitable as a topical study. Well, the paper
got promptly rejected, without review, by the editor S.L. Tuxen. In a
letter to Kristensen Tuxon said (going by memory) that he was not going to
allow publication of anything in 'his' journal that made reference to
Croizat. Kristensen was quite shocked - and I mean shocked. One could see
it in his face. He was visiting our university at the time and was a bit
skeptical of the struggle against ongoing suppression of panbiogeography. I
think he thought we were a bit paranoid. Well, Tuxen sure changed his
perspective. A little while later Tuxen was no longer the editor (he passed
away) and Kristensen ensured that the paper was published in the journal.

John Grehan