Data from: Were scientific policies aiming to promote internationalization related with a decline in descriptive taxonomy? Insights from the case of Spanish entomology

Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls limit our ability to, respectively,
describe species and map their distributions. In entomology,
well-established national scientific communities are essential for
bridging these shortfalls, given the world's entomofauna crisis.
However, descriptive taxonomic entomology has arguably lost academic
appeal in recent decades due to changes in scientific policies. Here, by
documenting temporal changes in the number of Spanish entomological
societies and journals in 1900–2020 and the subject matter of PhD theses
in 1980–2020, we analysed how scientific policies aimed at boosting
internationalization may have influenced Spanish taxonomic entomology.
Seventeen societies, 58 journals and 1162 PhD theses were scrutinized. The
number of entomological societies increased over time and their membership
either rose or remained stable. Furthermore, the number of journals
published increased over time up to the early 1980s. The affiliation and
nationality of authors was stable over time or showed an increase in
academic and international authorship. However, the scientific policies
implemented in the late 1980s were related with the disappearance of
several national journals, especially those published by universities. In
addition, the percentage of PhD theses dealing with descriptive taxonomy
and inventorying fell from ca. 40% in the 1980s to ca. 7% in 2016–2020,
while those tackling molecular taxonomy only increased slowly from 1 to 9%
in the period 1980–2020. These trends suggest that Spanish entomology
might not be in a position to overcome Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls in
the future. Countries implementing similar scientific policies may face
comparable problems and could learn from the Spanish situation.

林奈缺口（Linnean shortfall）与华莱士缺口（Wallacean shortfall）分别限制了我们开展物种描述与绘制其分布范围的能力。在昆虫学领域，鉴于全球昆虫区系（entomofauna）危机，成熟的国家级昆虫学学术共同体是填补这两类缺口的核心支撑。然而近数十年来，受科学政策变革影响，描述性分类昆虫学的学术吸引力已大幅下滑。本研究通过梳理1900年至2020年间西班牙昆虫学学会与期刊数量的时序变化，以及1980年至2020年博士学位论文的研究主题，分析了旨在推动国际化的科学政策对西班牙分类学昆虫学发展的影响。本次研究共审核了17个学会、58种期刊以及1162篇博士学位论文。结果显示，昆虫学学会的数量随时间持续增长，会员规模或升或稳。此外，期刊刊载总量在1980年代初之前呈上升趋势。作者的隶属机构与国籍分布相对稳定，或呈现学术产出与国际作者占比提升的态势。但1980年代末推行的科学政策与多份国家级期刊的停刊直接相关，其中尤以高校主办的期刊为甚。此外，涉及描述性分类学（descriptive taxonomy）与物种编目的博士学位论文占比，已从1980年代的约40%降至2016年至2020年的约7%；而聚焦分子分类学（molecular taxonomy）的论文占比则在1980年至2020年间仅从1%缓慢升至9%。这些趋势表明，西班牙昆虫学界未来或难以填补林奈与华莱士缺口。推行类似科学政策的国家可能面临类似困境，亦可从西班牙的案例中汲取经验。