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Rayfield, E.J., J.M. Theodor, and P.D. Polly. 2020. Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, letter, 21/04/2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200722214958/https://vertpaleo.org/GlobalPDFS/SVP-Letter-to-Editors-FINAL.aspx Society of Vertebrate Paleontology position statement about Burmese Amber https://web.archive.org/web/20201118155253/http://vertpaleo.org/Society-News/SVP-Paleo-News/Society-News,-Press-Releases/On-Burmese-Amber-and-Fossil-Repositories-SVP-Memb.aspx Comment on Society of Vertebrate Paleontology position statement Haug, C., Reumer, J.W.F., Haug, J.T. et al. Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding “Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data”: the importance of private collections. PalZ 94, 413–429 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-020-00522-x https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-020-00522-x https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-020-00524-9 Saintta, E.T., 2020, The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's policy is inconsistent with Scientific epistemology. PaleorXiv Papers, https://paleorxiv.org/xmkhb/ https://paleorxiv.org/discover Yours, Paul H.

Hi all, Someone has told me that researchers generally can't publish papers on fossils that are retained in private collections, but i am unconvinced. Is this really the case? I'm drawing a blank on thinking of notable examples of fossils that have been published which are held in a private collection, but i'm sure such cases exist. Perhaps anyone on this forum has a personal example of a situation where a fossil they found was published in the literature and that they still have ownership of it? What if someone finds a fossil and a cast is made for study but the original is kept by the finder. Is this really a problem for research procedures?