A Century of Peer-reviewed Australian Zoological Research: Prominent Authors, Themes and Usage of Papers from Australian Zoologist

Abstract

The peer-reviewed Australian Zoologist, first published in 1914, is Australia’s longest-lived zoological journal. Its publication history shows changes in the zoological topics covered over the last 100 years, including the animals studied, characteristics of the authors and readership, and the influence of the databases used to study the journal on information retrieval. Searches in different databases retrieved different numbers of papers; Scopus (including secondary documents not in the database but cited by documents that are in the database) was the most comprehensive. Although authors from 22 countries contributed papers over the history of the Australian Zoologist, over 90% of authors were Australian. Most international authors came from the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Approximately two-thirds of authors citing Australian Zoologist were Australian-based, but there were still 10 or more authors from each of thirty-four other countries citing Australian Zoologist: while regional, the journal has an international profile. Highly cited papers in Australian Zoologist had high mean Scopus percentile ranks (20th century 83.9, 21st century 73.7), indicating that in comparison to their fields globally, these papers are used well above average. Considering all papers published in Australian Zoologist, over time the proportion of papers in the categories ‘Biodiversity & Conservation’ and ‘Environmental Sciences & Ecology’ rose significantly, reflecting the increased research in these areas. Between 2013 and 2019, when relevant metrics are available in Scopus, Australian Zoologist declined in no metric measured while improving significantly in CiteScore, Highest Percentile, and % Cited, indicating increasing references to Australian Zoologist papers by other peer-reviewed publications. Between 2010 and 2019, 2.1% of Australian Zoologist papers were ranked within the top 10% in their fields globally, based on citation impact. Authors considering publishing in Australian Zoologist should note that longer papers are acceptable, colour imagery (including photographs) is encouraged, the journal is visible in major databases, it is cited internationally and there are no page charges.

Research publications of Australia’s natural history museums, 1981–2020: Enduring relevance in a changing world

“…There are three widely used databases suitable for locating museums' research publications: Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), and the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), with a further option provided by the search engine Google Scholar (GS). Each has potential advantages and disadvantages [33][34][35][36]. We chose Scopus because it: has a comprehensive institutional affiliation feature, covers the period 1981-2020, lists a range of research outputs (sources in Scopus language), provides extensive bibliometric data, and has output replicable by anyone with a Scopus subscription following specified search strings [37][38][39].…”

“…Meffe [93] proposed the concept 'internationally recognised regional journal' for a regional journal publishing documents cited internationally. Similarly, Tijssen et al [94] and Tijssen [95] divided South African journals into those used internationally and those rarely cited outside South Africa (see also [34,96,97] for examples of Australian journals and books). ANHM research is important for Australia, while having international relevance as revealed by international citations.…”