Quantitative Analysis: Measures of Interest

Abstract

Literature on the moral status of animals has proliferated in recent years: One estimate has it that more has been written on this topic in the past dozen years than in the previous 3,000.¹ It does not necessarily follow, however, that the growing public preoccupation with animal rights has any counterpart in the scientific literature. In fact, researchers have frequently been taken to task for ignoring animal welfare issues. Scientists themselves have sometimes concurred, as in 1977 when the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) published a report accusing colleagues of not paying enough attention to the issues being raised by animal welfare advocates.² More recently, a disapproving reviewer quoted this “fairly typical outburst” from a scientist who apparently still thinks the subject ought to be ignored: “There is a debate now as to what is the right of a mouse. Why are we wasting time in Washington with taking seriously this business?… This is complete and absolute craziness.” The scientist who reportedly said this was none other than James Watson, codiscoverer of the DNA helix, in a speech given in 1985.³ It remains an open question whether the research community is taking “this business” seriously enough, but one thing is clear: The number of articles in the scientific literature devoted to various aspects of the controversy has risen, and it has done so dramatically. In 1985, the latest year for which we have data, the number of such items found in five journals was almost 10 times larger than the number found in the same journals in 1977, the year of the FAS report. (See Figure 4.1. Our criteria for selecting relevant items and procedures for locating them are described in Chapter 3.)