Western North American Naturalist

Top Research Topics at Western North American Naturalist?

The journal mostly deals with topics like Ecology, Habitat, Range (biology), Zoology and Botany. Predation, Species richness, Vegetation, Abundance (ecology) and Riparian zone are Ecology topics of special interest in Western North American Naturalist. Species richness research discussed connects with the study of Species diversity.

• Ecology (60.17%)
• Habitat (18.94%)
• Range (biology) (11.75%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

• Woody riparian vegetation response to different alluvial water table regimes. (160 citations)
• The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California (136 citations)
• Effects of cattle grazing on North American arid ecosystems: a quantitative review (133 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Western North American Naturalist:

The published articles tackle a plethora of topics, such as Ecology, Habitat, Vegetation, Botany and Plant community. The journal articles concentrate on Ecology topics that focus on Species richness, Abundance (ecology), Riparian zone, Ecosystem and Introduced species. The journal papers hold forums on Habitat that merge themes from other disciplines such as Steppe and Grassland.

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

• Ecology
• Genus
• Botany

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal explores disciplines such as Ecology, Zoology, Habitat, Range (biology) and Fishery. It focuses on Ecology as well as the interrelated topic of STREAMS. Western North American Naturalist facilitates discussions on Zoology that incorporate concepts from other fields like Mareca penelope, Eurasian wigeon, Predation and Bacteria.

The research on Habitat tackled can also make contributions to studies in the areas of Crop (anatomy), Grassland, Survey methodology, Canned fish and Skunk. The journal focuses on Range (biology) but the discussions also offer insight into other areas such as Bark beetle, Glacier, Hummingbird, Leptonycteris and Plateau. In it, Convict cichlid, Fish kill, Fauna and Introduced species are investigated in conjunction with one another to address concerns in Fishery research.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

• Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine ( Pinus aristata ) is a confirmed host to mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae ) (2 citations)
• Historic methods of trapping plains spotted skunks: implications for modern survey methodology (1 citations)
• Monitoring the basking behavior of Rio Grande Cooter ( Pseudemys gorzugi ) through game cameras in southeastern New Mexico, USA (0 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 Western North American Naturalist (based on the number of publications) are:

• Keith Geluso (21 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
• Clayton M. White (18 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Howard O. Clark (18 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Mark C. Belk (14 papers) absent at the last edition,
• Michael L. Morrison (12 papers) absent at the last 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 Western North American Naturalist (based on the number of publications) are:

• United States Geological Survey (123 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 3 less than at the previous edition,
• Brigham Young University (91 papers) absent at the last edition,
• United States Forest Service (71 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition, 2 more than at the previous edition,
• Utah State University (69 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition the same number as at the previous edition,
• Colorado State University (54 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 2 less 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, 42.86% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 55.00% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 5.00% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 10.00% of all publications and 30.00% 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.