Theory articles in EER and other ecology journals versus climate change research

摘要

Questions: What are the trends in the number and proportion of theory papers in Evolutionary Ecology Research (EER) compared with those in ecology papers in ISI's Web of Science! How do these compare with trends in climate change papers? What are thetrends in the number and proportion of theory papers within the category of climate change papers?Methods: Enumeration and regression analysis of papers in EER published between 1999 and 2012 with the word 'theory' in their title or keyword list. Enumeration and regression analysis of papers in the ISI Web of Science published between 1982 and 2012 (Category: Ecology; Document Type: Article).Results: The annual proportion of theory articles in EER showed no trend during the period analysed. But the proportion of theory articles in ISI-listed ecology journals decreased markedly. During the same period, the total number of ecology papers quadrupled and the absolute number of ecological theory papers doubled. Climate change papers showed an explosive increase during the period but only a tiny fraction of them were theoretically oriented.