South American science: Big players

Catanzaro, Michele; Miranda, Giuliana; Palmer, Lisa; Bajak, Aleszu

doi:10.1038/510204a

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…It would be fruitful for researchers to consider other regional contexts where science and religion intersect, such as South America, the Middle East, and Africa. There are pockets of excellence, and research is expanding in these regions (Al-Shobakky 2010; Catanzaro et al 2014;Editorial 2014). Given the religious diversity found in each region, it is possible that the science-faith interface there-and in other regional contexts-would look quite different than what we have observed here.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion among Scientists in International Context

Ecklund

Johnson

Scheitle

et al. 2016

Socius

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Scientists have long been associated with religion's decline around the world. But little data permit analysis of the religiosity of scientists or their perceptions of the science-faith interface. Here we present the first ever survey data from biologists and physicists in eight regions around the world-France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries and regions selected because they exhibit differing degrees of religiosity, varying levels of scientific infrastructure, and unique relationships between religious and state institutions (N = 9,422). The data collection includes biologists and physicists at all career stages from elite and non-elite universities and research institutes. We uncovered that in most of the national contexts studied, scientists are indeed more secular-in terms of beliefs and practices-than those in their respective general populations, although in four of the regional contexts, over half of scientists see themselves as religious. And surprisingly, scientists do not think science is in conflict with religion. Instead, most see religion and science as operating in separate spheres.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion among Scientists in International Context

Ecklund

Johnson

Scheitle

et al. 2016

Socius

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“…This dominance cannot only be attributed to Brazil's vast territory, but also to the economic boom and large research investments allocated across the country over the last decade (Regalado, 2010). In particular, the high concentration of phenological studies in the state of São Paulo is facilitated by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the leading research funding agency across all Brazilian states (Catanzaro et al, 2014). In addition, two of the authors of this review have carried out two decades of phenological research in both the Atlantic Forest and cerrado scrublands of São Paulo and Brazilian Amazonia, further increasing the concentration of studies in these regions.…”

Section: Geographic Distribution Of Phenological Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continental-scale patterns and climatic drivers of fruiting phenology: A quantitative Neotropical review

Mendoza

Peres

Morellato

2017

Global and Planetary Change

129

126

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Changes in the life cycle of organisms (i.e. phenology) are one of the most widely used early-warning indicators of climate change, yet this remains poorly understood throughout the tropics. We exhaustively reviewed any published and unpublished study on fruiting phenology carried out at the community level in the American tropics and subtropics (latitudinal range: 26°N–26°S) to (1) provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of fruiting phenology research throughout the Neotropics; (2) unravel the climatic factors that have been widely reported as drivers of fruiting phenology; and (3) provide a preliminary assessment of the potential phenological responses of plants under future climatic scenarios. Despite the large number of phenological datasets uncovered (218), our review shows that their geographic distribution is very uneven and insufficient for the large surface of the Neotropics (~ 1 dataset per ~ 78,000 km2). Phenological research is concentrated in few areas with many studies (state of São Paulo, Brazil, and Costa Rica), whereas vast regions elsewhere entirely unstudied. Sampling effort in fruiting phenology studies was generally low: the majority of datasets targeted fewer than 100 plant species (71%), lasted 2 years or less (72%), and only 10.4% monitored > 15 individuals per species. We uncovered only 10 sites with ten or more years of phenological monitoring. The ratio of numbers of species sampled to overall estimates of plant species richness was wholly insufficient for highly diverse vegetation types such as tropical rainforests, seasonal forest and cerrado, and only slightly more robust for less diverse vegetation types, such as deserts, arid shrublands and open grassy savannas. Most plausible drivers of phenology extracted from these datasets were environmental (78.5%), whereas biotic drivers were rare (6%). Among climatic factors, rainfall was explicitly included in 73.4% of cases, followed by air temperature (19.3%). Other environmental cues such as water level (6%), solar radiation or photoperiod (3.2%), and ENSO events (1.4%) were rarely addressed. In addition, drivers were analyzed statistically in only 38% of datasets and techniques were basically correlative, with only 4.8% of studies including any consideration of the inherently autocorrelated character of phenological time series. Fruiting peaks were significantly more often reported during the rainy season both in rainforests and cerrado woodlands, which is at odds with the relatively aseasonal character of the former vegetation type. Given that climatic models predict harsh future conditions for the tropics, we urgently need to determine the magnitude of changes in plant reproductive phenology and distinguish those from cyclical oscillations. Long-term monitoring and herbarium data are therefore key for detecting these trends. Our review shows that the unevenness in geographic distribution of studies, and diversity of sampling methods, vegetation types, and research motivation hinder the emergence of clear general phenolo...

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“…In developing countries, several unique factors may enable plagiarism such as: (i) lack of training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) (Rodriguez and Lolas 2011; Davis 2003; Vasconcelos et al 2009; Cameron et al 2012); (ii) poor development of writing skills (Heitman and Litewka 2011; Vasconcelos et al 2009; Cameron et al 2012); (iii) tolerance to misconduct during education and professional activities (Heitman and Litewka 2011; Vasconcelos et al 2009); (iv) lack of institutional policies and oversight of academic centers and journals (Rodriguez and Lolas 2011; Heitman and Litewka 2011; Vasconcelos et al 2009); (v) differing perceptions of intellectual property and misconduct (Heitman and Litewka 2011; Davis 2003; Cameron et al 2012); (vi) the pervasive effect of corruption (Heitman and Litewka 2011); and (vii) cultural differences in values (Rodriguez and Lolas 2011; Heitman and Litewka 2011; Davis 2003; Vasconcelos et al 2009; Cameron et al 2012). Discussing plagiarism in Latin America is an important issue, given the dramatic growth of research activities in the region in the last two decades (Van Noorden 2014; Catanzaro et al 2014). In particular, sporadic reports have highlighted the occurrence of plagiarism in research conducted in Latin America (Vasconcelos et al 2009; Alfaro-Tolosa et al 2013), and the reaction of scientific journals (Alfaro-Tolosa et al 2013; Almeida et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plagiarism, Cheating and Research Integrity: Case Studies from a Masters Program in Peru

et al. 2016

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Plagiarism is a serious, yet widespread type of research misconduct, and is often neglected in developing countries. Despite its far-reaching implications, plagiarism is poorly acknowledged and discussed in the academic setting, and insufficient evidence exists in Latin America and developing countries to inform the development of preventive strategies. In this context, we present a longitudinal case study of seven instances of plagiarism and cheating arising in four consecutive classes (2011–2014) of an Epidemiology Masters program in Lima, Peru, and describes the implementation and outcomes of a multifaceted, “zero-tolerance” policy aimed at introducing research integrity. Two cases involved cheating in graded assignments, and five cases correspond to plagiarism in the thesis protocol. Cases revealed poor awareness of high tolerance to plagiarism, poor academic performance, and widespread writing deficiencies, compensated with patchwriting and copy-pasting. Depending on the events’ severity, penalties included course failure (6/7) and separation from the program (3/7). Students at fault did not engage in further plagiarism. Between 2011 and 2013, the Masters program sequentially introduced a preventive policy consisting of: (i) intensified research integrity and scientific writing education, (ii) a stepwise, cumulative writing process; (iii) honor codes; (iv) active search for plagiarism in all academic products; and (v) a “zero-tolerance” policy in response to documented cases. No cases were detected in 2014. In conclusion, plagiarism seems to be widespread in resource-limited settings and a greater response with educational and zero-tolerance components is needed to prevent it.

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South American science: Big players

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Religion among Scientists in International Context

Religion among Scientists in International Context

Continental-scale patterns and climatic drivers of fruiting phenology: A quantitative Neotropical review

Plagiarism, Cheating and Research Integrity: Case Studies from a Masters Program in Peru

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