Ecology Letters

Top Research Topics at Ecology Letters?

The main points discussed in the journal deals with Ecology, Ecosystem, Biodiversity, Species richness and Habitat. It features Ecology research that overlaps with concepts in Biological dispersal. Ecosystem research featured in the journal incorporates concerns from various other topics such as Biomass (ecology) and Trophic level.

Trophic level research is the primary subject tackled in Ecology Letters with a focus on Food web. Ecology Letters focused on Biodiversity research but expanded to cover Extinction. Ecology Letters focuses on Species richness but the discussions also offer insight into other areas such as Abundance (ecology) and Species diversity.

Global warming is a key component of Climate change research discussed in it. It centers on topics in Predation, with a focus on Predator.

• Ecology (99.28%)
• Ecosystem (16.86%)
• Biodiversity (16.63%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness (4774 citations)
• Predicting species distribution: offering more than simple habitat models. (4412 citations)
• The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology (3389 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Ecology Letters:

The journal articles generally zeroe in on subjects such as Ecology, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Species richness and Ecology (disciplines). The published papers tackle studies in Biological dispersal and the interrelated subject of Range (biology) to gain insights into Ecology. The subject of Trophic level, which is connected to the field of Predation, serves as the foundation of the Ecosystem research featured in the most cited papers.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

• Ecology
• Botany
• Genus

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The main research concerns discussed in the journal are Ecology, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Climate change and Range (biology). Habitat, Species richness, Biomass (ecology), Ecology (disciplines) and Predation are all aspects of Ecology research featured in it. The journal connects research in Biomass (ecology) with the related topic of Food web.

Climate change study tackled is connected to the field of Herbivore. The studies on Range (biology) discussed can also contribute to research in the domains of Species distribution and Extinction.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

• Seeing through the static: the temporal dimension of plant–animal mutualistic interactions (16 citations)
• Effect of allelopathy on plant performance: a meta-analysis. (15 citations)
• Long-term change in the avifauna of undisturbed Amazonian rainforest: ground-foraging birds disappear and the baseline shifts. (15 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

Top authors and change over time

The top authors publishing in Ecology Letters (based on the number of publications) are:

• Peter B. Reich (30 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition, 1 more than at the previous edition,
• Eric W. Seabloom (28 papers) published 5 papers at the last edition, 3 more than at the previous edition,
• Michel Loreau (26 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition, 2 more than at the previous edition,
• Helmut Hillebrand (25 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Jonathan M. Chase (24 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Top affiliations and change over time

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Ecology Letters (based on the number of publications) are:

• University of California, Davis (156 papers) published 11 papers at the last edition, 3 more than at the previous edition,
• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (151 papers) published 10 papers at the last edition, 3 more than at the previous edition,
• University of Minnesota (129 papers) published 9 papers at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
• University of California, Santa Barbara (125 papers) published 8 papers at the last edition, 4 more than at the previous edition,
• Spanish National Research Council (108 papers) published 10 papers at the last edition, 5 more than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 1.26% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 28.09% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 14.89% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 24.68% of all publications and 32.34% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

• Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
• Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
• Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
• Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
• Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.