Correlates of research effort in carnivores: body size, range size and diet matter.

ABSTRACT: Given the budgetary restrictions on scientific research and the increasing need to better inform conservation actions, it is important to identify the patterns and causes of biases in research effort. We combine bibliometric information from a literature review of almost 16,500 peer-reviewed publications on a well-known group of 286 species, the Order Carnivora, with global datasets on species' life history and ecological traits to explore patterns in research effort. Our study explores how species' characteristics influenced the degree to which they were studied (measured as the number of publications). We identified a wide variation in intensity of research effort at both Family and Species levels, with some of the least studied being those which may need protection in future. Our findin

SUBMITTER: Brooke ZM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3973602 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature