Scientific Paper

[Stocksdale]

I've been completing a "working paper" on some significant new finds that add some new understanding about the "upland" flora of the Lower Pennsylvanian. I'll be sending what I have to some people like Dr. Bill DiMichele and others to get feedback and determine next steps. But I had a few questions that I'd like some help with:

1. What kind of embargo on information about a working paper is typical. Do I run into issues for it to get published if I share the working paper widely? Should I avoid sharing information about it on the Fossil Forum?

2. Does the location need to be fully revealed? If there is desire by the landowners to keep the location undisclosed, what would one do? Could the location be fully described, but have specific coordiates only available upon request?

3. I do understand that the main specimens being researched in the paper must be housed in a public museum. If there are secondary items being described to understand the setting, do they also need to be public? And, if you do a census (relative abundance of different species) of a location, do all items included in that census need to be housed publicly?

4. What is the process typically used to determine relative abundance of different plant species in a location?

[Boesse]

1. It depends upon the journal - most journals don't care, big journals like Science/Nature/Current Bio/PNAS etc. have restrictions on what you can say publicly about your new finds.

2. No, and I encourage you not to! I never publish full locality details, coordinates, and most of my maps lack an "x marks the spot" - unless it's a locality where fossils are so rare and its so far away that I wouldn't mind if a collector turned up something new. But to protect sensitive localities - either that you're afraid will be ransacked, or to protect localities on private land and stay friends with the landowners, it's a good idea. You can stipulate that more locality info can be provided by the museum housing the collection or from you (the latter of which applicable only while you're alive, though).

3. Yes, yes, and yes. Your paper will probably not be accepted unless all of the material being discussed is housed within a museum (and by that I mean a public museum or federal repository).

4. I'm not the person to answer this!

[toolbox82]

At the link below is an example of what could be published for all the public to see as you asked in question #2. The fossil site is located on my ranch here in Cameron, Tx. We do not have any problems with trespassers here. Texas trespassing laws are well enforced here.

http://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1062478755

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[Stocksdale]

Thanks for the help.