From conference abstract to publication in the conservation science literature

Every two years, the conservation community comes together at The Society for Conservation Biology's International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) to share new developments in conservation science and practice. Publication of content presented at conferences in scientific journals adds to a permanent record and helps increase its potential impact. However, quantitative research on publication rates for meetings relevant to conservation is lacking. We provide a data-driven exploration of the presentations at the 25th ICCB held in Auckland, New Zealand in 2011. To study publication rates and presenter demographics, we recorded titles, number of authors, presenter affiliations, gender, country of study region, publication status, and the elapsed time between presentation and publication. Of the 980 contributions (782 talks and 198 posters), 587 (60%) became publications. We found a mean time to publication of 13.7 months for all published abstracts, and 21.3 months when excluding abstracts published before the meeting. The gender breakdown of presenters was almost even (53% male, 47% female), but the representation of the countries where the presenting authors were based at was biased. The political units with the most contributions were by far the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Presenters based in English-speaking countries made up 74% of the total sample, but this did not influence the likelihood of their abstract becoming a publication. Understanding the presentation to publication process in conservation is useful to identify biases and potential challenges that need to be addressed to make conference communications permanent and increase their reach beyond those in attendance

Patterns in research and data sharing for the study of form and function in caviomorph rodents

The combination of morphometrics, phylogenetic comparative methods, and open data sets has renewed interest in relating morphology to adaptation and ecological opportunities. Focusing on the Caviomorpha, a well-studied mammalian group, we evaluated patterns in research and data sharing in studies relating form and function. Caviomorpha encompasses a radiation of rodents that is diverse both taxonomically and ecologically. We reviewed 41 publications investigating ecomorphology in this group. We recorded the type of data used in each study and whether these data were made available, and we re-digitized all provided data. We tracked two major lines of information: collections material examined and trait data for morphological and ecological traits. Collectively, the studies considered 63% of extant caviomorph species; all extant families and genera were represented. We found that species-level trait data rarely were provided. Specimen-level data were even less common. Morphological and ecological data were too heterogeneous and sparse to aggregate into a single data set, so we created relational tables with the data. Additionally, we concatenated all specimen lists into a single data set and standardized all relevant data for phylogenetic hypotheses and gene sequence accessions to facilitate future morphometric and phylogenetic comparative research. This work highlights the importance and ongoing use of scientific collections, and it allows for the integration of specimen information with species trait data.Recientemente ha resurgido el interés por estudiar la relación entre morfología, ecología, y adaptación. Esto se debe al desarrollo de nuevas herramientas morfométricas y filogenéticas, y al acceso a grandes bases de datos para estudios comparados. Revisamos 41 publicaciones sobre ecomorfología de roedores caviomorfos, un grupo diverso y bien estudiado, para evaluar los patrones de investigación y la transparencia para la liberación de datos. Registramos los tipos de datos que se utilizaron para cada estudio y si los datos están disponibles. Cuando estos datos se compartieron, los redigitalizamos. Nos enfocamos en los ejemplares consultados, y en datos que describen rasgos ecológicos y morfológicos para las especies estudiadas. Los estudios que revisamos abarcan el 63% de las especies de caviomorfos que actualmente existen. Encontramos que raramente fueron compartidos los datos que se tomaron para especies, y menos aún para ejemplares. Los datos morfológicos y ecológicos eran demasiado heterogéneos e exiguos para consolidar en un solo banco de datos; debido a esta circunstancia, creamos tablas relacionales con los datos. Además, enlazamos todas las listas individuales de especímenes para crear un solo banco de datos y estandarizamos todos los datos pertinentes a hipótesis filogenéticas, así como los números de acceso de secuencias genéticas, para así facilitar eventuales estudios comparados de morfometría y filogenia. Este trabajo resalta la importancia de las colecciones científicas y documenta su uso, además permitiendo la futura integración de datos derivados de ejemplares con datos sobre rasgos ecomorfológicos a nivel de especie.Fil: Verde Arregoitia, Luis D.. Universidad Austral de Chile; ChileFil: Teta, Pablo Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: D Elía, Guillermo. Universidad Austral de Chile; Chil

ICCB publication rates.

Conservation Biology. Data and R code

Biases, gaps, and opportunities in mammalian extinction risk research

A subdiscipline of conservation science involves the study of differences between threatened and non-threatened species. The relevance of multispecies analyses of extinction risk to conservation practice has been questioned, but there has been no synthesis of the allocation of research effort to different regions and groups of mammals to assess whether or not sufficient knowledge is available to support conservation science where it is most needed. I reviewed 68 comparative studies of mammalian extinction risk to test whether existing research reflects our concern for threatened species. Additionally, I examined the variables used and various methodological issues that can lead to uninformative results. Known spatial and taxonomic biases in conservation science persisted in extinction risk research, leaving large proportions of globally threatened taxa unstudied. Primates and carnivores had more dedicated studies, whereas small mammals such as rodents and the Eulipotyphla (true shrews, talpids, solenodons, gymnures, and hedgehogs) lack research effort despite their high diversity, threat, and extinction record. Except for the Australian mammal fauna (a clear priority given the number of threatened, extinct, and endemic taxa), most areas of conservation importance remain underrepresented in these types of studies. Detailed country-level analyses can provide applicable results for understudied regions. I propose Southeast Asia and the Caribbean for further research, given their high levels of extinction, threat and endemism, and their unique biogeographic histories. Finally, I offer suggestions for general methodological improvements to avoid problems with missing data and statistical circularity in order to maximise conservation relevance

Australian Mammal Society and SSSC-NY talks

<p>slides for 2012 Australian Mammal Society and Student Conference on Conservation Science, New York</p

rodentMS2014

<p>Onlince enhancements</p

Missing clade constraints for PASTIS

<p>List of inclusions/exclusions for taxa with no sequence data and no sister species in the constraint tree.</p

Lagomorph diversity and extinction risk

<p>R code and data used. See "DataDefinition.csv" for variable details and "metadata.csv" for file titles and descriptions.</p

Cambridge Zoology Ecology Series talk

<p>talk at the lunchtime seminar series, Cambridge 2013</p

International Mammalogical Congress talk

<p>talk at the IMC 2013 Belfast</p