dinolisters/SVP and ethical conduct

[John R Hutchinson <jrhutch@stanford.edu>]

Hi folks, nice SVP meeting.

    However, one thing I noticed at SVP that was not at all nice was that at least one person who is on the dinolist was eavesdropping on private conversations about unpublished research and taking notes on those private conversations.  I don't know what these notes were, but I hope people that do this are enough in tune with reality to know that it is unethical to distribute unpublished information by researchers without the permission of those researchers.  I hope unpublished info from SVP does not get improperly distributed by dinolist members; it would be truly sad.  SVP is an important meeting for researchers to meet face-to-face and distribute information, and we should not have to worry about that information leaking out.  A good principle is to not distribute scientific information from SVP (or elsewhere, such as specimens that you see in someone's care at a museum) unless one or more of the following are true: (1) the data are published, (2) the authors give permission, (3) the information was presented in a talk or poster (in this last case, you should still be careful what you distribute, and following #2 at the same time is a good safeguard).

    Just trying proactively to prevent bad things from happening; I'm not accusing anyone in particular.  Hope everyone else at SVP had a good time and a safe return home.

As for 50kph Giganotosaurus (sigh), read the paper first....

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