Data from: 120 Years of “Lemurology” - What has changed?

Lemurs, a highly diverse primate group endemic to Madagascar, have
captivated the attention of researchers for nearly 120 years. Here, we
conducted a literature review and a bibliometric analysis to provide an
overview of how various aspects of “Lemurology”, or the scientific studies
of lemurs, have changed over time. Focusing only on original scientific
articles, we described the trends in the topics and taxa studied, the
publication languages, the authorship, and study sites. We used two
datasets: one from the Web of Science (WoS; 2,223 articles) and another
from three Madagascar-focused journals (MFJ; 329 articles). The
observation of lemurs in the wild is the oldest form of Lemurology,
starting under the French colonization, and remains the main data source
for articles in both datasets. Microcebus and Eulemur are the most studied
genera in WoS and Propithecus and Eulemur in MFJ. At this time, no
articles are written in Malagasy, but English and French are the main
languages used in Lemurology. Although Malagasy scientists are still
underrepresented at the international level, there is a recent shift
toward an increased number of Malagasy scientists as first and last
authors. We found no gender bias in WoS but MFJ exhibited noticeable male
author dominance. Most Lemurology has been conducted at the Duke Lemur
Center (USA), followed by Kirindy and Ranomafana forests in Madagascar.
Lemurology thus shows different portraits at international and local
levels, suggesting that unequal access to resources and opportunities may
hinder the effective investigation and conservation of lemurs.