Monge-Nájera J, Díaz L
Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, C.A.
Rev Biol Trop. 1988 Nov;36(2B):347-59.
Citation indices are inappropriate measures of scientific output and impact. For that reason, nonparametric statistics were preferred to analyze 35 years of publication on Tropical biology in the Revista de Biología Tropical. The most frequent subjects are animal taxonomy, human biology-including medicine- ecology and animal behavior. Botany papers are less frequent and mainly deal with morphology and taxonomy. Applied studies are not predominant. In that period, only one case of unethical experimentation with humans was discovered in a paper of Mexican origin. The proportion of foreign institutions publishing in the journal has increased from 23% (1953-1963) to 50% in the last decade; similarly, the number of studies done in the Neotropics is on the rise. English and Spanish are equally frequent, although English is the basic language of ethology and evolution and Spanish predominates in papers on animal morphology and parasitology. Most Costa Rican authors publish in Spanish, in contrast with many of their Latin American colleagues. In recent years, there is a tendency to publish shorter papers written by more than one author. The Revista de Biología Tropical, covered by 18 data bases, accounts for most exchanges and sales in the Universidad de Costa Rica and has worldwide distribution.
文献引用索引并非衡量科研产出和影响力的恰当指标。因此，我们选用非参数统计方法来分析《热带生物学杂志》35年来发表的有关热带生物学的文献。最常见的主题是动物分类学、人类生物学（包括医学）、生态学和动物行为学。植物学论文相对较少，主要涉及形态学和分类学。应用研究并不占主导地位。在那段时期，在一篇来自墨西哥的论文中仅发现一例涉及人体的不道德实验。在该期刊上发表文章的国外机构比例已从23%（1953 - 1963年）增至过去十年的50%；同样，在新热带地区开展的研究数量也在增加。英语和西班牙语出现的频率相当，不过英语是动物行为学和进化领域的基本语言，而西班牙语在关于动物形态学和寄生虫学的论文中占主导地位。与许多拉丁美洲同行不同，大多数哥斯达黎加作者用西班牙语发表文章。近年来，有一种发表由多位作者撰写的篇幅较短论文的趋势。《热带生物学杂志》被18个数据库收录，在哥斯达黎加大学的交流和销售中占比最大，并且在全球发行。
