A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists

Abstract

Publication output is the standard by which scientific productivity is evaluated. Despite a plethora of papers on the issue of publication and citation biases, no study has so far considered a possible effect of social activities on publication output. One of the most frequent social activities in the world is drinking alcohol. In Europe, most alcohol is consumed as beer and, based on well known negative effects of alcohol consumption on cognitive performance, I predicted negative correlations between beer consumption and several measures of scientific performance. Using a survey from the Czech Republic, that has the highest per capita beer consumption rate in the world, I show that increasing per capita beer consumption is associated with lower numbers of papers, total citations, and citations per paper (a surrogate measure of paper quality). In addition I found the same predicted trends in comparison of two separate geographic areas within the Czech Republic that are also known to differ in beer consumption rates. These correlations are consistent with the possibility that leisure time social activities might influence the quality and quantity of scientific work and may be potential sources of publication and citation biases.

Negative changes in the scientific publication process in ecology: potential causes and consequences

“…The overall response rate in our survey (81.2%) has implications about the relevance of the topic of this article to the scientific community. The response rate was almost as high as that of a survey on the relation between beer consumption and publication output among Czech avian ecologists (89.5%; Grim, 2008), about double that of a more conventional survey of authors in ecology on rejection rates (40.4%; Cassey & Blackburn, 2004) and about four times that of a survey of editors in ecology and evolution on editorial practices (18.5%; Grod et al. , 2010).…”

Characterizing a scientific elite: the social characteristics of the most highly cited scientists in environmental science and ecology

“…Journals included in Thompson ISI’s “Environmental Science and Ecology” categoryA full list of journals included in this category can be accessed at http://www.isihighlycited.com/isi_copy/Comm_newse04EVD.htm.Topical areas covered by journals in “Environmental Science and Ecology”This area includes journals dealing with biodiversity conservation; climate change; pure and applied ecology; ecological modeling and engineering; ecotoxicology; evolutionary ecology; environmental contamination and toxicology; environmental health, monitoring, technology, geology, and management; natural history; soil science and conservation; and water resources research and engineering.Calculating alcohol consumptionNumber of alcoholic beverages was figured by converting all responses to the American standards, where one glass of wine is four ounces and one beer twelve ounces.To compare with data presented by Grim (2008), number of drinks was converted into pure alcohol consumption using the standard metric of 0.5 oz of pure alcohol per one-four ounce glass of wine and one twelve ounce glass of beer. No respondent reported hard alcohol consumption.…”

“…To compare with data presented by Grim (2008), number of drinks was converted into pure alcohol consumption using the standard metric of 0.5 oz of pure alcohol per one-four ounce glass of wine and one twelve ounce glass of beer. No respondent reported hard alcohol consumption.…”

“…Given that scientists in other fields tend to publish their most highly cited research early in their careers (Falagas et al 2008; Garfield 1981), the lag between publication and citation accrual, and that we are examining highly cited scientists within a broad 30-year period (more on this below), we also expect most respondents to be in middle to late career stage and between the ages of 50 and 70 years old. Additionally, Grim (2008) recently tested the relationship between non-work related lifestyle choices and scientific accomplishment among Czech ecologists, finding increased levels of beer consumption to be associated with lower numbers of publications, total citations, and citations per paper. Thus, we expect that this group will drink little on average, and will drink less than Grim’s (significantly less cited and productive) Bohemian and Moravian samples.…”

Open issues in organizing computer systems conferences

“…Finally, Tomás Grim reports on the results of a study on scientific authorship that simply cries out for replication among the computer systems community [14].…”