I was asked why I do not publish more research work online. The answer to that is quite simple: theft.
Over the years I have cooperated with university academics and others "above reproach" and they take what they want then close and bolt the door. They got what they wnted I can go drown in a cess-pool.
There are many bloggers and writers who have no compunction about stealing images and data that it has taken me decades to get hold of because I foolishly trusted them. A great deal that you will see online regarding exotic animals and menageries in the past was not generally known pre 2000. I worked long and hard and ruined my eye trawling through newspaper archives. Photographs as well. All used freely today without crediting the main researcher -me.
Money and ego are the main reasons for the stealing of data. It has become accepted that anything mentioned or posted to the internet can be taken and used uncredited even if it carries a copyright notice. Many of my own illustrations have been stolen offline and used with my signature removed.
Various amounts of information have been stolen from The Red Paper (2010) and used by people as their own work.
After I saw huge chunks actually taken from my research used by three "cryptozoologists" who blocked me when I challenged them I drew a line.
My work is published in book form containing all the reference sources any real researcher needs to build on. Once published the work is identified as my own and that clearly makes anyone "coming up" with the same data a thief.
The results of my work on wildcats as well as canids in the UK are to be published in two works this year and will not go on general sale until officially listed and documented on official sites.
I have spent over 40 years doing all of this and there is no funding or huge sales. But I will be damned if I am going to allow more theft of work.
That is why I discuss some things but will not publish material on a medium that allows outright theft.
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