Data from: The geographical and institutional distribution of ecological research in the tropics

We reviewed 1333 papers published in Biotropica and the Journal of Tropical Ecology from 1995 to 2004. Only 62 percent of tropical countries were represented in our survey, with 62 percent of the publications based on research conducted in only ten countries. Sixty-two percent of papers had lead authors that were based at institutions outside the country where the research was conducted. Cross-national collaboration was limited, accounting for only 28 percent of papers with multiple authors. To evaluate if our choice of focal journals could have biased our results, we also reviewed 652 papers published in Ecology, Oecologia, Conservation Biology, and Biological Conservation for five randomly selected years from the same time period. While some differences in authorship and the geographic distribution of research existed, the results from these journals generally mirrored patterns observed in the two focal ones—almost 54 percent of publications were based on research conducted in only ten countries, and most studies had lead authors from a developed country. The results of our review suggest that the geographical distribution of research in the tropics is unequal, and that some important regions remain understudied. The results also suggest a need for a greater focus on establishing collaborative relationships with scientists from tropical countries.

本研究梳理了1995年至2004年间发表于《Biotropica》与《Journal of Tropical Ecology》的1333篇论文。本次调研仅覆盖了62%的热带国家，且其中62%的论文的研究工作仅开展于10个国家境内。62%的论文第一作者所属科研机构位于研究开展国之外，跨国合作情况有限，在多作者论文中仅占28%。为验证所选核心期刊是否会对研究结果造成偏倚，本研究同时从同期5个随机抽取的年份中，筛选了发表于《Ecology》《Oecologia》《Conservation Biology》与《Biological Conservation》的652篇论文进行分析。尽管作者构成与研究地理分布存在一定差异，但这些期刊的分析结果整体与前述两种核心期刊的观测模式一致：近54%的论文研究工作仅开展于10个国家境内，且绝大多数研究的第一作者来自发达国家。本次综述结果表明，热带地区研究的地理分布并不均衡，部分重要区域仍存在研究不足的问题；同时也凸显出加强与热带国家科研人员建立合作关系的必要性。