Talk:Harold E. Robinson

Untitled
I agree that the extensive list of publications seems unnecessary but have held off deleting it as I haven't done any other editing on this article; are any other botanists (or any scientists for that matter, living or dead) treated so thoroughly??
 * Actually, this is rather a short list, taking into account he has more than 650 publications under his name. Don't forget he named over 2800 new species and is one of the most prominent botanists on Asteraceae. In my opinion these are only the most important publications and Wikipedia should be proud to list them. This way we can truly distinguish ourselves from other encyclopedias. (BTW please sign your entry with four tildes). JoJan 09:05, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Second answer : Yes, there are other botanists treated so thoroughly : e.g. look at Ernst Mayr. This centenarian continued publishing until he was 98 years old ! We should not treat someone who has hundreds of important publications the same way as someone who had only a few publications ! JoJan 09:11, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I still don't see how the list of publications is necessary (unless specific reference is made made to individual publications within the body of the article); is this a biographical/informational entry or a CV? There's no need to prove that Dr. Robinson is "prominent" botanist and I don't understand the rationale for including most of them, as several of the articles are quite minor publications such as new nomenclatural combinations, a 1-page article describing a couple of new species, and a 1-page article of chromosome numbers! Why not just provide an external link to his staff page at the Smithsonian Institution, where anybody who is especially interested can get a nearly-complete list of his publications? Since I'm new to Wikipedia and have not contributed to this particular entry I am taking no action; I'm not questioning whether Robinson is a prominent botanist, but rather how the list of publications adds anything to the article. I certainly hope other botanists who have arguably been far more influential in the field of botany even though they may not have published nearly as many individual articles (e.g., Arthur Cronquist), will ultimately get treatments anywhere approaching this level of detail. MrDarwin 17:39, 6 January 2006 (UTC)