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From little things, big things grow; trends and fads in 110 years of Australian ornithology

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Abstract

Publishing histories can reveal changes in ornithological effort, focus or direction through time. This study presents a bibliometric content analysis of Emu (1901–2011) which revealed 115 trends (long-term changes in publication over time) and 18 fads (temporary increases in publication activity) from the classification of 9,039 articles using 128 codes organised into eight categories (author gender, author affiliation, article type, subject, main focus, main method, geographical scale and geographical location). Across 110 years, private authorship declined, while publications involving universities and multiple institutions increased; from 1960, female authorship increased. Over time, question-driven studies and incidental observations increased and decreased in frequency, respectively. Single species and ‘taxonomic group’ subjects increased while studies of birds at specific places decreased. The focus of articles shifted from species distribution and activities of the host organisation to breeding, foraging and other biological/ecological topics. Site- and Australian-continental-scales slightly decreased over time; non-Australian studies increased from the 1970s. A wide variety of fads occurred (e.g. articles on bird distribution, 1942–1951, and using museum specimens, 1906–1913) though the occurrence of fads decreased over time. Changes over time are correlated with technological, theoretical, social and institutional changes, and suggest ornithological priorities, like those of other scientific disciplines, are temporally labile.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to the volunteers and previous Deakin University students who helped code: Jim Butler, Erin Ashcroft, David Plant, Neil Shelley and Alan Sergi; to those at BirdLife Australia for help with background information and finding articles, namely John Peter and James O’Connor; and Kate Buchanan (Deakin University), Penny Olsen (Australian National University), three anonymous reviewers and Libby Robin (Australian National University) for additional feedback and suggestions.

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  1. Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, Deakin Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia

    Maree R. Yarwood & Michael A. Weston

  2. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Casuarina, NT, 0909, Australia

    Stephen T. Garnett

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  1. Maree R. Yarwood
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  2. Michael A. Weston
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Correspondence to Michael A. Weston.

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Yarwood, M.R., Weston, M.A. & Garnett, S.T. From little things, big things grow; trends and fads in 110 years of Australian ornithology. Scientometrics 98, 2235–2254 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1144-z

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