Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
Conserv Biol. 2011 Feb;25(1):195-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01591.x. Epub 2010 Oct 21.
As a result of global declines in amphibian populations, interest in the conservation of amphibians has grown. This growth has been fueled partially by the recent discovery of other potential causes of declines, including chytridiomycosis (the amphibian chytrid, an infectious disease) and climate change. It has been proposed that researchers have shifted their focus to these novel stressors and that other threats to amphibians, such as habitat loss, are not being studied in proportion to their potential effects. We tested the validity of this proposal by reviewing the literature on amphibian declines, categorizing the primary topic of articles within this literature (e.g., habitat loss or UV-B radiation) and comparing citation rates among articles on these topics and impact factors of journals in which the articles were published. From 1990 to 2009, the proportion of papers on habitat loss remained fairly constant, and although the number of papers on chytridiomycosis increased after the disease was described in 1998, the number of published papers on amphibian declines also increased. Nevertheless, papers on chytridiomycosis were more highly cited than papers not on chytridiomycosis and were published in journals with higher impact factors on average, which may indicate this research topic is more popular in the literature. Our results were not consistent with a shift in the research agenda on amphibians. We believe the perception of such a shift has been supported by the higher citation rates of papers on chytridiomycosis.
由于全球范围内两栖动物数量的减少，人们对保护两栖动物的兴趣日益增加。这种增长部分是由于最近发现了其他潜在的减少原因，包括壶菌病（一种传染性疾病）和气候变化。有人提出，研究人员已经将注意力转移到这些新的压力源上，而其他对两栖动物的威胁，如栖息地丧失，并没有按照它们的潜在影响进行相应的研究。我们通过回顾有关两栖动物减少的文献来检验这一建议的有效性，对文献中的文章的主要主题进行分类（例如，栖息地丧失或 UV-B 辐射），并比较这些主题的文章的引用率以及文章发表的期刊的影响因子。从 1990 年到 2009 年，关于栖息地丧失的论文比例相对稳定，尽管在 1998 年描述了壶菌病之后，有关壶菌病的论文数量有所增加，但有关两栖动物减少的论文数量也有所增加。然而，与非壶菌病相关的论文相比，有关壶菌病的论文被引用的频率更高，而且这些论文发表在影响因子更高的期刊上，这可能表明这个研究主题在文献中更受欢迎。我们的研究结果与对两栖动物的研究议程的转变不一致。我们认为，这种转变的看法是基于壶菌病相关论文的高引用率而得到支持的。
