[Coral-List] FIELD OF GIANTS

Alina Szmant alina at cisme-instruments.com
Sat Sep 25 14:29:36 UTC 2021


We have had this discussion on Coral List every few years. The background literature base keeps getting bigger and bigger,  and many scientists think that only the more recent published work is relevant or worthwhile citing. So there is a sliding effect of backwards citations covering less and less of the older literature as time goes on.  It's like the 1950s to 2000s research never happened. Also, in the era of Breaking News,  everyone wants to be the first at doing an experiment or reporting a finding,  thus it is counterproductive to read older work and then find out that your Breaking News is not News at all.



Dr. Alina M. Szmant,  CEO
CISME Instruments LLC



-------- Original message --------
From: Rupert Ormond via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Date: 9/25/21 5:16 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] FIELD OF GIANTS

Dennis,

Totally agree with you there. Graduates and early stage researchers are
increasingly re-discovering (or unaware of) basic findings that were
described in papers 40 years ago. But a few weeks ago I did receive a
systematic review from a graduate who had gone back to all the original
papers - it was really refreshing and interesting.

Rupert


Professor Rupert Ormond
Co-Director, Marine Conservation International
Hon. Professor, Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology,
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh


On 24/09/2021 19:49, Dennis Hubbard via Coral-List wrote:
> Hi David:
>
> I share your concerns. My biggest concern involves the upcoming generation
> of reef scientists, many of whom appear to be discouraged from critically
> searching the literature. I have been told on more than one occasion that
> journals are increasingly demanding that only the most "up-to-date
> citations'' be included. As a result, important historical context is
> undervalued relative to claims like, "for the first time....". Leading
> universities have increasingly allowed PhD candidates to bundle some number
> of published papers in lieu of a formal dissertation. Unfortunately, these
> future scientists will lack the appreciation of many older papers that set
> the stage for modern research .As a result, too many "cutting-edge papers
> seem to be reinventing the wheel. This is all too common in "flagship
> journals" like *Science* and *Nature *that  severely limit citations
> (something on the order of 10-12 last time I checked). These practices make
> it easy to miss important historical context to the point that we may be
> seeing papers on the origins of atolls that fail to cite folks like Darwin,
> Daly and WM Davis.
>
> Dennis
>
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 8:41 AM David Blakeway via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> Revisiting this 2021 article about the big GBR Porites.. It's a little
>> disappointing that the authors hadn't picked up on the 2020 article, IN THE
>> SAME JOURNAL, describing a Samoan Porites colony a full ORDER OF MAGNITUDE
>> more massive than the GBR example. Is literature review becoming an
>> afterthought?
>> Also, the abstract contains the sentence: "This is the largest
>> diameter *Porites
>> *coral measured by scientists and the sixth highest coral measured in the
>> GBR." As written, the first clause of this sentence is clearly incorrect.
>> It was probably intended to apply only to the GBR, but, if so, should have
>> been punctuated: "This is the largest diameter *Porites *coral measured by
>> scientists, and the sixth highest coral measured, in the GBR." (which still
>> seems to imply, to me at least, that non-scientists can't be trusted with a
>> tape measure - I'm sure that was not the intention).
>> Of course, it's impossible to write the perfect paper, and unfair to expect
>> the editor and reviewers to catch everything. But surely these oversights
>> shouldn't have got through? I think I am over-sensitive to this stuff but,
>> for me, they spoil what is otherwise a great little paper.
>> signed K.R. Mudgeon
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>
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