Wells and Wellington affair
The Wells and Wellington affair was a dispute about the publication of three papers in the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" in 1983 and 1985. The periodical was established in 1981 as a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the study of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology). Its first two issues were published under the editorship of Richard W. Wells, a first-year biology student at Australia's University of New England. Wells then ceased communicating with the journal's editorial board for two years before suddenly publishing three papers without peer review in the journal in 1983 and 1985. Coauthored by himself and high school teacher Cliff Ross Wellington, the papers reorganized the taxonomy of all of Australia's and New Zealand's amphibians and reptiles and proposed over 700 changes to the binomial nomenclature of the region's herpetofauna.

Members of the herpetological community reacted strongly to the pair's actions and eventually brought a case to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to suppress the scientific names they had proposed. After four years of arguments, the commission opted not to vote on the case because it hinged largely on taxonomic arguments rather than nomenclatural ones, leaving some of Wells and Wellington's names available. The case's outcome highlighted the vulnerability to the established rules of biological nomenclature that desktop publishing presented. As of 2020, 24 of the specific names assigned by Wells and Wellington remained valid senior synonyms.
Q7096397
peer-reviewed
Concept
Q5633421
scientific journal
Concept
Q10908
amphibian
Concept
Q10811
reptile
Concept
Q174416
herpetology
Concept
Q589298
editorship
Concept
Q14563964
Richard W. Wells
UNK
Q1814435
University of New England
LOC
Q2985386
editorial board
Concept
Q8269924
taxonomy
Concept
Q36642
binomial nomenclature
Concept
None
herpetofauna
UNK
Q1071346
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
ORG
Q941227
suppress
UNK
Q4827436
available
UNK
Q188610
desktop publishing
Concept
Q908437
specific names
Concept
None
senior synonyms
UNK
Q106002762
Wells and Wellington affair
UNK
1983-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1983
DATE
1985-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1985
DATE
1981-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1981
DATE
1983-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1983
DATE
1985-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1985
DATE
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2020
DATE
+24^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
24
NUMBER
participant
studies
studies
part of