Congratulations Geoff for the recognition! Very well deserved.
I would like to take advantage on this email to share some thoughts with
you that are quite related to WoRMS. These thoughts have probably been
raised in the past in this Annelida forum, but I would not like to lose the
opportunity to do it now and probably *open a small debate around it*.
Do you know how many citations a paper like the one by Folmer et al (1994)
describing COI primers universally used for PCR amplification and
sequencing have? The answer is more than 9000. This paper provides a very
useful information about the sequences of two primers that many of us use
for our barcoding of phylogenetic analysis. But, is it more relevant in
terms of citation on a paper than citing the paper that described a species
reported in the same paper? The answer for that is that they would be at
least (in my opinion) equally relevant and both should be cited in the text.
Reality is quite different. Papers like the one by Folmer et al (1994) are
*always* cited in scientific studies, *while papers describing species are*
*rarely* included in the reference lists unless they are part of a
taxonomic study. It means that work done by us (when providing essential
information about species in our taxonomic and systematic studies) is quite
often disregarded and undervalued. We do probably are kind of responsible
for this situation, because we tend to think that taxonomic/systematic
studies are not to be cited in, for example, ecological papers. In this
kind of ecological studies, for instance, we tend to provide long lists of
species that provide a great value for our studies but just consider them
as 'simple' names and not as a source of scientific information themselves.
Do the papers in which these names were described have less value than the
paper by Folmer et al (1994)? The answer is *NO*. There is loads of effort
and work behind all these names which should be valued.
What can we do to fix this (unfair) situation? We are a very big and active
community of researchers and there are several more communities as ours
'out' there. Most of us review papers and some are part of editorial boards
in different scientific journals. I do not probably have a say as an
individual but if joining together (Annelida, Porifera etc etc etc) we can
be a quite effective 'super-organism' able to have things changed.
*There is a restriction of space in some of the journals: *Ok. Then let's
add these references in a Supplementary Reference List.
*Taxonomy matters* and if we want other people taking it/us seriously we
need to start by giving it the value it deserves.
All the best,
Sergi.
2018-05-28 11:25 GMT+01:00 Barbara Mikac <mikacbarbara from gmail.com>:
> Congratulations and thank you for your efforts, Geoff!
>> Greetings,
> Barbara
>> _____________
> Barbara Mikac
> Professor of Bology, microbiology and healthcare control
> Institute of Higher Education "Ettore Majorana"
> Technical and technological Institute - Healthcare biotechnologies
> Via Caselle 26
> 40068 San Lazzaro di Savena
> Bologna
> Italy
>> On 22 May 2018 at 07:59, Simon, CA, Dr [csimon from sun.ac.za] <
>CSIMON from sun.ac.za>
> wrote:
>> > Hi Geoff
> >
> > I'd like to add on to all the other congratulations that have come
> through
> > these last few days. You and the other editors are doing an amazing job
> > that has made all of our lives so much easier.
> >
> > Thank you very much
> > Carol
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu <annelida-bounces from oat.bio.> > indiana.edu> On Behalf Of Geoff Read
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2018 1:18 AM
> > To: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu> > Subject: RE: [Annelida] congratulations Geoff!
> >
> > Thanks Nancy,
> >
> > It’s great to get a response like that. The idea is that we put up the
> > information and explanatory notes, and users can take it as they wish,
> > disagree if they have reason to, and let us know if it is wrong, but most
> > importantly usually only one person needs to do the time-consuming
> delving
> > into the history and sorting out the anomalies. And everyone, including
> > the editors, benefit if the publications are stored at WoRMS or linked
> > direct to the BHL online pages, and original descriptions can be read at
> a
> > click away. There’s still a lot more to do, but we are making progress.
> >
> > I don’t do this alone, but with several current and past editors of
> > particular families, including Harry ten Hove who was there even before
> > Kristian contributed his database, and is still there. I’d also like to
> > make special mention of João Gil, who has made a major contribution
> across
> > a spectrum of families in the time since he joined in 2013, has got very
> > skilled with working at WoRMS, and is great with finding and linking the
> > literature. We could not keep up with the inflow without him. Thanks
> João!
> >
> > For those that don’t know, on Twitter I am @WPolyDb posting for our
> > section of the WoRMS database, retweeting new lit, nice pics, and keeping
> > to wormy topics.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Geoff
> >
> > From: Nancy Maciolek [mailto:njmaciolek from gmail.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, 22 May 2018 5:34 a.m.
> > To: Chris Glasby <chris.glasby from nt.gov.au>
> > Cc: Geoff Read <Geoffrey.Read from niwa.co.nz>;
>annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.ed> > Subject: Re: [Annelida] congratulations Geoff!
> >
> > I would like to congratulate Geoff on this award and also thank him
> > enthusiastically for all he has done to significantly upgrade the WoRMS
> > database over the past several years. It is simply amazing to me that we
> > now have links to so many publications embedded in the database, as well
> as
> > history on some of the name changes, comments on same, and other pieces
> of
> > information that in the "old days" might have been impossible to ferret
> out
> > without a great deal of effort. A huge job, well done.
> >
> > Thank you, Geoff!
> >
> > best regards,
> > Nancy
> >
> > Nancy J. Maciolek
> >
> > On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 10:26 PM, Chris Glasby <chris.glasby from nt.gov.au<
> > mailto:chris.glasby from nt.gov.au>> wrote:
> > Hats off to our World Polychaeta Database leader.
> >
> > WoRMS has just announced that Geoff has received an 'Achievement Award'
> at
> > the 5th World Conference of Marine Biodiversity (Canada, Montreal, 16
> May)
> > for the major and very detailed contributions he has made to WoRMS in the
> > past years, and his input & constructive feedback during his time on the
> > Steering Committee.
> >
> > The announcement also acknowledged his work as the driving force behind
> > The World Polychaeta Database (http://www.marinespecies.org/polychaeta),
> > his efforts to create a more inclusive online AnnelidaBase (in analogy
> with
> > MolluscaBase), and for communicating the good work of WoRMS through
> > Twitter.
> >
> > Great work Geoff!! I think I can say for all that we are all massively
> > appreciative of the work you do to make our online annelid lives easier.
> >
> > Best, Chris
> >
> >
> > [http://cdn.sun.ac.za/100/ProductionFooter.jpg]<http://> > www.sun.ac.za/english/Pages/Water-crisis.aspx>
> >
> > The integrity and confidentiality of this email is governed by these
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> > Die integriteit en vertroulikheid van hierdie e-pos word deur die
> volgende
> > bepalings gereël. Vrywaringsklousule<http://www.> sun.ac.za/emaildisclaimer>
> >
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> > Post: Annelida from net.bio.net> > Help/archive: http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/annelida> > Resources: http://www.annelida.net> >
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--
------------------------------------------------------
Sergi Taboada
The Natural History Museum of London
Life Sciences Dept., Invertebrates Division
DC1, 6th floor
Office 605
Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD, London (UK)
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7492 5433
sergiotab from gmail.com
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergi_Taboada>Sergi Taboada in
Researchgate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sergi_Taboada>
------------------------------------------------------
