Articulo en Systematic Biology sobre el impacto de las publicaciones taxonomicas

Accepted April 27, 2015.
Syst Biol (2015) doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syv026 First published online: May 4, 2015
This article is Open Access
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A Falsification of the Citation Impediment in the Taxonomic Literature

Florian M. Steiner1,*,
Marco Pautasso2,3,§,
Herbert Zettel4,
Karl Moder5,
Wolfgang Arthofer1 and
Birgit C. Schlick-Steiner1

Current science evaluation still relies on citation performance, despite criticisms of purely bibliometric research assessments. Biological taxonomy suffers from a drain of knowledge and manpower, with poor citation performance commonly held as one reason for this impediment. But is there really such a citation impediment in taxonomy? We compared the citation numbers of 306 taxonomic and 2,291 non-taxonomic research articles (2009-2012) on mosses, orchids, ciliates, ants, and snakes, using Web of Science and correcting for journal visibility. For three of the five taxa, significant differences were absent in citation numbers between taxonomic and non-taxonomic papers. This was also true for all taxa combined, although taxonomic papers received more citations than non-taxonomic ones. Our results show that, contrary to common belief, taxonomic contributions do not generally reduce a journal’s citation performance and might even increase it. The scope of many journals rarely featuring taxonomy would allow editors to encourage a larger number of taxonomic submissions. Moreover, between 1993 and 2012, taxonomic publications accumulated faster than those from all biological fields. However, less than half of the taxonomic studies were published in journals in Web of Science. Thus, editors of highly visible journals inviting taxonomic contributions could benefit from taxonomy’s strong momentum. The taxonomic output could increase even more than at its current growth rate if (i) taxonomists currently publishing on other topics returned to taxonomy and (ii) non-taxonomists identifying the need for taxonomic acts started publishing these, possibly in collaboration with taxonomists. Finally, considering the high number of taxonomic papers attracted by the journal Zootaxa, we expect that the taxonomic community would indeed use increased chances of publishing in Web of Science indexed journals. We conclude that taxonomy’s standing in the present citation-focussed scientific landscape could easily improve – if the community becomes aware that there is no citation impediment in taxonomy.

Key words

Animals
citations
impact factor
microorganisms
plants
scientometrics
taxonomic impediment
taxonomy
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Five New Bess Beetles Discovered in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru

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April 7, 2015 by Entomology Today 3 Comments

Beetles in the family Passalidae are one of the few groups of beetles that are subsocial — the adults actually care for their young and nest in decaying logs. Male and female adults pre-chew the wood and feed it to the larvae, which otherwise would not be able to digest it. They can even communicate audibly by rubbing their wings and their abdomens together — an act known as stridulation, which is often associated with crickets and other insects. Even the larvae are able to stridulate.
Five new passalid beetle species from South America were recently found and described in an article published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

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Workshop "The use of Phylogenies in the study of Macroevolution - 3rd edition", Barcelona

Registration is open for the course "THE USE OF PHYLOGENIES IN THE STUDY OF MACROEVOLUTION - 3rd edition"

Dates: Septiembre 28 - October 2, 2015.

Instructor: Dr. Juan López Cantalapiedra (Museo de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, Spain).

This course is aimed at postgraduate students, postdoctoral reserachers and established academics, and can be validated by 4 ECTS at European Universities.

Webpage and registration: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/evol/phylogeny-and-macroevolution/ or writing to courses@transmittingscience.org

First, this course will introduce participants to the use, modification and representation of phylogenetic trees. Then, we will focus on the use of phylogenetic information to reconstruct ancestral characters and biogeographic histories, learning how to apply Phylogenetic Comparative Methods. This course will also tackle trait evolution modeling and the assessment of phylogenetic signal. Finally, we will learn about the shape of phylogenetic trees and its evolutionary causes and how to estimate the rates of diversification throughout the evolutionary history of groups. Participants are encouraged to bring their data sets to use in the practical class.
Important note: Please bear in mind that this course is not about reconstructing (building) phylogenetic trees.

Software: Mesquite, FigTree, BayesTraits (using BayesTraits Wrapper in R), RASP and R (ape, TreeSim, TreePar, Geiger, OUwie, BioGeoBEARS).

Place:  Facilities of the CRIP at  Els Hostalets de Pierola, Barcelona (Spain).

Organized by: Transmitting Science, the Centre de Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologic and the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont.