ISSN: 1800-427X (printed)
eISSN: 1800-427X (online)
DOI:10.47605/tapro.v10i2.269Submitted date: 26 August 2021
Published date: 22 November 2021
Pp. 140–145
LETTER TO EDITOR: A response to Narayanan et al. (2021) “On the validity of the recently described bush frog Raorchestes kollimalai Gowande, Ganesh & Mirza, 2020” published in ZootaxaZeeshan A. Mirza* & Gaurang Gowande
*E-mail: snakeszeeshan@gmail.com
Narayanan
et al. (2021) make extremely grave allegations of ‘misrepresentation of data’ by Gowande
et al. (2020). Narayanan
et al. (2021) found serious flaws in the publication dealing with the description of
Raorchestes kollimalai by Gowande, Ganesh & Mirza (2020). The authors state that Gowande
et al. (2020) overlooked many errors, which consequently raises questions on the validity of
R. kollimalai. We here respond to their comments, dispel their false allegations of misrepresentation of data and provide evidence for the validity of
Raorchestes kollimalai. A common practice while writing a response/critique of a published paper is to contact the editor of the journal in which the paper was published, which, in this case, is
TAPROBANICA. However, Narayanan
et al. (2021) chose to publish their critique in a different journal,
ZOOTAXA and thus, were unaware of the erratum to the paper on the new species. The erratum that was published in a recent issue of Taprobanica (Gowande
et al. 2021) resolves some of the concerns raised by Narayanan
et al. (2021). These concerns were a mistake on the part of Gowande
et al. (2020) but by no means did the authors intend to hide or misrepresent data as accused by Narayanan
et al. (2021).