Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.

Given the budgetary restrictions on scientific research and the increasing need to better inform conservation actions, it is important to identify the patterns and causes of biases in research effort. We combine bibliometric information from a literature review of almost 16,500 peer-reviewed publica...

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Autores principales:	Zoe M Brooke, Jon Bielby, Kate Nambiar, Chris Carbone
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c357edd2fd5548659187c41dd4bd306a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c357edd2fd5548659187c41dd4bd306a2021-11-18T08:25:17ZCorrelates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0093195https://doaj.org/article/c357edd2fd5548659187c41dd4bd306a2014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24695422/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Given the budgetary restrictions on scientific research and the increasing need to better inform conservation actions, it is important to identify the patterns and causes of biases in research effort. We combine bibliometric information from a literature review of almost 16,500 peer-reviewed publications on a well-known group of 286 species, the Order Carnivora, with global datasets on species' life history and ecological traits to explore patterns in research effort. Our study explores how species' characteristics influenced the degree to which they were studied (measured as the number of publications). We identified a wide variation in intensity of research effort at both Family and Species levels, with some of the least studied being those which may need protection in future. Our findings hint at the complex role of human perspectives in setting research agendas. We found that better-studied species tended to be large-bodied and have a large geographic range whilst omnivory had a negative relationship with research effort. IUCN threat status did not exhibit a strong relationship with research effort which suggests that the conservation needs of individual species are not major drivers of research interest. This work is the first to use a combination of bibliometric analysis and biological data to quantify and interpret gaps in research knowledge across an entire Order. Our results could be combined with other resources, such as Biodiversity Action Plans, to prioritise and co-ordinate future research effort, whilst our methods can be applied across many scientific disciplines to describe knowledge gaps.Zoe M BrookeJon BielbyKate NambiarChris CarbonePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 4, p e93195 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Zoe M Brooke Jon Bielby Kate Nambiar Chris Carbone Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
description	Given the budgetary restrictions on scientific research and the increasing need to better inform conservation actions, it is important to identify the patterns and causes of biases in research effort. We combine bibliometric information from a literature review of almost 16,500 peer-reviewed publications on a well-known group of 286 species, the Order Carnivora, with global datasets on species' life history and ecological traits to explore patterns in research effort. Our study explores how species' characteristics influenced the degree to which they were studied (measured as the number of publications). We identified a wide variation in intensity of research effort at both Family and Species levels, with some of the least studied being those which may need protection in future. Our findings hint at the complex role of human perspectives in setting research agendas. We found that better-studied species tended to be large-bodied and have a large geographic range whilst omnivory had a negative relationship with research effort. IUCN threat status did not exhibit a strong relationship with research effort which suggests that the conservation needs of individual species are not major drivers of research interest. This work is the first to use a combination of bibliometric analysis and biological data to quantify and interpret gaps in research knowledge across an entire Order. Our results could be combined with other resources, such as Biodiversity Action Plans, to prioritise and co-ordinate future research effort, whilst our methods can be applied across many scientific disciplines to describe knowledge gaps.
format	article
author	Zoe M Brooke Jon Bielby Kate Nambiar Chris Carbone
author_facet	Zoe M Brooke Jon Bielby Kate Nambiar Chris Carbone
author_sort	Zoe M Brooke
title	Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
title_short	Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
title_full	Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
title_fullStr	Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
title_full_unstemmed	Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
title_sort	correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/c357edd2fd5548659187c41dd4bd306a
work_keys_str_mv	AT zoembrooke correlatesofresearcheffortincarnivoresbodysizerangesizeanddietmatter AT jonbielby correlatesofresearcheffortincarnivoresbodysizerangesizeanddietmatter AT katenambiar correlatesofresearcheffortincarnivoresbodysizerangesizeanddietmatter AT chriscarbone correlatesofresearcheffortincarnivoresbodysizerangesizeanddietmatter
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Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.

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