birding-aus

RE: the decline of ornithological publications

To: <>
Subject: RE: the decline of ornithological publications
From: Dean Portelli <>
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 02:49:49 +1000
Hi all,

 I have just gone back through and read all the posts on this very interesting 
topic which as a committee member of the Australian Bird Study Association 
which publishes the journal Corella has been the subject of many discussions.

 Firstly, I would like to defend Steve somewhat. One of the purposes of an 
editorial is as a commentary on a subject written to promote consideration of 
an issue(s). I think Steve has done just that! The many posts on birding-aus 
about the subject would surely make Steve happy he took the time to put his 
thoughts to paper.

 As an ornithologist myself (I still use the term lightly, when does one 
actually become qualified in a particular field?) I would like to make the 
point that there is a HUGE amount of information that can be added to the 
massive amount already collected. For example, there are most definitely not 
1000's of search results pages when googling Hall's babbler. It is naieve to 
think that we have enough information about any particular species. This 
particularly applies to common or 'least concern' species that may become 
threatened in the future. Not to pat myself on the back but this is indeed the 
case with Hall's Babbler. Furthermore, amateurs can add immensely to research 
being conducted by professionals (I follow Chris Lloyd's definitions of these 
terms). One of the research projects I am currently looking at makes use of 
records collected by a huge number of mostly amateur people to explore 
management issues for Hall's babbler. So, what may be perceived by someone 
(including the observer) as an insignificant observation may be a valuable 
little titbit of information that builds a larger picture, supports an idea or 
stimulates further research/inquiry for someone else. Birding-aus provides a 
great forum for submitting these observations, but also for asking whether they 
are worthy of publishing.

 With regards to reporting observations via birding-aus versus an 
ornithological publication (journal), with my professional hat on I have the 
following comments. First, I think it is great that birding-aus and other 
internet mediums have made it possible to rapidly report all sorts of 
information that may appear to some as uninteresting, but may get the adrenalin 
surging for others. One of the things I did before even going out to the field 
to find Hall's babblers for my PhD was to search birding-aus for any reports on 
the species. The internet thus provides the opportunity to record observations 
that may never end up being recorded (in a journal or otherwise) for various 
reasons (including time constraints on our lives!). Second, the down side to 
using the net rather than a publication is that the peer-review process has 
been bypassed. In the context of amateurs publishing there are two important 
roles that this process plays: 1) professionals are usually involved in the 
process and can comment on whether sufficient information has been provided so 
that the work is useful to people in the future, 2) it improves the confidence 
a reader can have in the work once it has been published where contacting the 
author is no longer possible, this is because the interpretations are subject 
to scrutiny by others with knowledge in the area.

 To address the issue Steve was initially exploring, I believe there is another 
reason, in addition to those already proposed by others, that has contributed 
to the decline in publications by amateurs. Improvements in scientific practice 
and reporting, competition between journals and competition amongst researchers 
for funding, has led to an increase in the standards expected of published (and 
submitted) works in journals today. I believe that this inhibits the 
publication by amateurs of incidental or less rigorously collected 
observations. This also applies to professionals, I include myself here. For 
example, there is often more natural history type information in an unpublished 
thesis than in the publications that result, yet this information can be 
valuable to anyone working on that species or a related species in the future 
(I am a case in point). As an aside, within academia I have detected a 
widespread attitude that research needs to be 'cutting edge' and test the 
latest ideas, or else investigate the processes and factors underlying what is 
observed in the natural world. Many journals also expect this, or at least that 
the observations reported be put in a much broader context. Reporting purely 
natural history information seems substandard, regardless of the quality of the 
science behind the data. I think this is ignorant as the incentive and 
motivation for many research questions is founded in natural history 
information of a species. Furthermore, it is naieve to think we have sufficient 
natural history information for all species.

 Well, this my 'rant on the rant' as someone put it.

Cheers,
Dean
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