[Taxacom] nomen nuda and missing authors

[Stephen Thorpe]

It might be possible to publish a paper for which you are the author, but using Nichols' unpublished descriptions attributed to Nichols. There are just three potential problems: (1) permission - I don't know if this is needed or from whom; (2) to be author of the new names, Nichols needs to be responsible for fulfilling all the requirements of availability except for publication - this could be a problem if he missed something out or if the Code has changed since he wrote his dissertation!; and (3) you would also have to publish Nichols' errors, if there were any, but Nichols may have wanted to fix those errors before publishing his work, or may not have wanted to publish, because of the errors.

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 24/8/18, Michael A. Ivie <mivie at montana.edu> wrote:

 Subject: [Taxacom] nomen nuda and missing authors
 To: "Taxacom List" <TAXACOM at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Friday, 24 August, 2018, 10:26 AM
 
 While we are talking about making names
 available without impinging on 
 the work of others, I have a question
 about the morals of a situation 
 that I think comes up relatively
 often.
 
 Stephen Wayne Nichols published a paper
 on scaratine carabids in 
 Liebherr's 1988 book on West Indian
 Biogeography, and used several nomen 
 nuda.  The work had photos and
 distribution maps, and it is sometimes 
 possible to figure out what the names
 go with.  He then finished a 
 dissertation at Cornell, also in 1988,
 in which he fully treated the 
 names with descriptions and
 repositories, but never published it.  A 
 couple years later, he simply
 disappeared. He seems to have 
 intentionally disappeared from all
 entomology related aspects of his 
 former life.  I was an office mate and
 fellow grad student with Steve, 
 and considered him a good friend, so
 this is not hearsay.
 
 These nomen nuda have made their way
 into the literature, along with 
 some new combinations and other
 details.  I need to use the information 
 in his dissertation, but the names are
 unavailable, and I don't want to 
 validate them under my name.  Is it
 moral to submit a paper under his 
 name with the minimum data needed to
 validate the names? Would an editor 
 even allow such? Should they? What
 about lifting passages from the 
 dissertation and putting them in a
 paper authored by myself, but 
 attributing the names to Nichols? Can I
 do that without permission?
 
 Any ideas?
 
 Mike Ivie
 
 
 -- 
 __________________________________________________
 
 Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.
 
 NOTE: two addresses with different Zip
 Codes depending on carriers
 
 US Post Office Address:
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 Marsh Labs, Room 50
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 Montana State University
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 USA
 
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 Montana State University
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 mivie at montana.edu
 
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