Quantifying the contribution of zoos and aquariums to peer-reviewed scientific research

Loh, Tse‐Lynn; Larson, Eric R.; David, Solomon R.; Souza, Lesley S. de; Gericke, Rebecca; Gryzbek, Mary; Kough, Andrew S.; Willink, Philip W.; Knapp, Charles

doi:10.1139/facets-2017-0083

Cited by 35 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Zoological databases that hold information on species' biology can enhance the scientific literature on natural history and ecology ; information that also informs animal management practices and species conservation strategies both in-situ and ex-situ. As centres for both pure and applied science, the output from zoological collections not only covers a range of disciplines (Loh et al 2018) but is of increasing value to multiple stakeholders working in all parts of the world with all taxonomic groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The modern zoo's roles command empirical enquiry to determine the effectiveness of zoos locally and globally. Ten years ago, published work identified the need for empirical research on a diverse range of species beyond charismatic zoo megafauna. We review zoo-based research published in the decade since this original recommendation. We collectively evaluate zoo-themed research papers from those working in zoos and those external to zoos but studying zoo-housed animals. By systematically searching Web of Science © for zoo-based research and performing inductive content analysis to code year, journal, study animal's taxonomic classification, and research aims and outputs we evaluate trends in zoo-themed research, contrasted with trends in species holding. Significantly more birds and fish are kept compared to mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but mammals are consistently the primary research focus. Whilst output generally rises, only for birds is a steady increase in publications apparent. Husbandry evaluation is a major aim/output, but papers on pure biology, cognition and health also feature. Most publications lead to "specific advancement of knowledge" including validation of methodologies. We show that: (1) trends in species holdings are unrelated to trends in publication; (2) zoo-themed research makes meaningful contributions to science; (3) zoo researchers should diversify their aim/output categories and chosen study species to close the persisting research gaps that we have identified. Finally, we discuss our findings in the context of evident species biases within research outputs across the broader fields of zoology, conservation and ecology.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Tse-Lynn Loh recently assessed the value of scientific zoological publications and found that not only do nonprofit zoos and aquariums publish scientific literature at significantly high rates, these publications are also highly cited by others. 1 Organizations with research-affiliated mission statements had the highest rates of output, as well as those with strong research funding and an established history of publication. This conservation research is a requirement for members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and Loh determined that it contributes to broader ecological knowledge and conservation efforts.…”

Section: Scientific Zoological Publicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Striding towards an institutional repository: Managing staff publications at San Diego Zoo Global

Hammond

2019

C&RL News

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The long, rich, history of staff publications at San Diego Zoo Global (SDZG)is a point of institutional pride. As such, a question like “What has San Diego Zoo Global published on [insert species]?” seems so simple and reasonable, and yet it’s proven one of the hardest for us at the SDZG Library to answer.Managing staff publications, in general, is difficult, and managing them digitally brings new challenges. Thus while the SDZG Library has been attempting to manage staff publications for quite some time, it’s become apparent that our previous method is insufficient for our patrons, so we’ve begun working on a move towards a new direction.

show abstract

“…CAZA members participate in Species Survival Programs and captive breeding and reintroduction programs, while also collaborating with government and nongovernment organizations to preserve species in Canada and abroad (Galbraith and Rapley 2005). However, quantifying the contribution of zoos and aquariums to conservation-related activities is extremely difficult (Ferraro and Pattanayak 2006;Loh et al 2018). Research productivity in the form of peer-reviewed publications has been used to systematically quantify this contribution for members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), CAZA's counterpart in the United States (Loh et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, quantifying the contribution of zoos and aquariums to conservation-related activities is extremely difficult (Ferraro and Pattanayak 2006;Loh et al 2018). Research productivity in the form of peer-reviewed publications has been used to systematically quantify this contribution for members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), CAZA's counterpart in the United States (Loh et al 2018). Peer-reviewed publications are important contributions to scientific knowledge that can be shared with other practitioners and thus aid in the formulation of informed conservation management decisions (Loh et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer-reviewed scientific contributions from Canadian zoos and aquariums

Pyott

Schulte‐Hostedde

2020

FACETS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the widespread loss of biodiversity, zoos and aquariums are striving to become leaders in biodiversity conservation and research. Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) is a nonprofit organization created to represent its members, including as agencies of conservation and science. However, the contribution of CAZA members to conservation and science has not been quantified. We used research productivity in the form of peer-reviewed publications to systematically quantify biodiversity conservation engagement by CAZA institutions. We extracted publications from the ISI Web of Science database and found that the annual number of publications increased over time. CAZA members published most in the area of veterinary science, with few publications in biodiversity conservation. Organization age, research-orientated mission statements, and financial assets were significant predictors of research productivity. CAZA institutions also published significantly less ([Formula: see text] = 12.5 ± 5.52 SE) than members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums ([Formula: see text] = 24.27 ± 5.08 SE), based in the United States. Zoos and aquariums are important resources in mitigating biodiversity loss, and are increasing their research output in this area. Nonetheless, only a small proportion of publications were in biodiversity conservation, and the majority of all publications occurred in zoo-centric journals.

show abstract

Quantifying the contribution of zoos and aquariums to peer-reviewed scientific research

Cited by 35 publications

References 34 publications

What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output

What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output

Striding towards an institutional repository: Managing staff publications at San Diego Zoo Global

Peer-reviewed scientific contributions from Canadian zoos and aquariums

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About