A preprint by paleontologist Brian Gee finds that dinosaurs and other “charismatic” extinct animals are overrepresented in high-profile scientific journals compared with specialized publications. The analysis of more than 4,200 papers describing 8,331 extinct species suggests that editorial attention is concentrated on fossils likely to attract public interest, while less visually appealing groups such as mollusks and arthropods receive less coverage.
The discovery of species such as Pleurobranchea britannica often attracts less attention than fossils of dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus mirabilis.
Credit: Turani, M. Others/Zoosyst. evolution. CC BY 4.0; JA Chirinos/SPL
In February, Science1 published a study describing Spinosaurus mirabilis, a new species of spinosaur, the group of giant fish-eating dinosaurs. The animal has a distinctive scimitar-shaped emblem. The paper generated hundreds of news articles and thousands of social-media posts, but also prompted a collective groan from some paleontologists.
“Whenever a new dinosaur is published in a high-profile magazine, there are always critical comments about why dinosaurs always make it in,” says Gee, a paleontologist at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington, and an author of the study. He says the reaction is particularly noticeable when dinosaur discoveries are compared with less visually appealing fossil species.
In a preprint posted on bioRxiv2 this month, Gee tested that widely held impression using publication data. He found that dinosaurs and other “charismatic” extinct species—animals that command public attention—appear disproportionately often in high-profile journals compared with the kinds of species described in specialized journals.
Darling of the media
Gee’s research was prompted by discussions on social media about the Spinosaurus paper. He says that the idea that dinosaur fossils receive disproportionate attention from leading academic journals has long been treated as fact, despite there having been little evidence to support it.
The analysis identified overrepresented and underrepresented groups in the high-profile journals Nature and Science by comparing them with journals in which newly described species appear.
Source: Reference 2
Gee analyzed more than 4,200 research papers published since 2000 that described 8,331 newly discovered extinct species. The papers appeared in 13 journals, including Science, Nature, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Journal of Paleontology. Gee identified the latter two as among the most prestigious specialized journals publishing paleontological research.
More than half of the fossil species described in Science and Nature belonged to Avemetapoda, the group that includes dinosaurs and birds, or Mammalia, which includes mammals and their relatives. By contrast, invertebrate groups such as mollusks and arthropods made up more than half of the species described in some specialized journals but accounted for only 15% of the species described in the high-profile journals.
Francesca Cesari, managing editor for biology, clinical and social sciences at Nature, said in a statement: “Editorial decisions about which papers to publish are made independently based on the quality and importance of the published research, following a rigorous peer review process. The papers we publish reflect both the submissions we receive and the editors’ and reviewers’ assessment of the significance of the results.”
Representatives of Science declined to comment because Gee’s study has not yet been peer-reviewed. Nature’s news team is independent from the journal’s editorial team.
Reaction to the preprint was mixed, Gee says. On the social-media platform Bluesky, one comment—“sorry for the French”—was essentially: “That’s not true, Sherlock.” Nevertheless, Gee argues that bringing data to the discussion is important.
He says the imbalance could distort incentives in paleontological research and discourage early-career scientists from studying less attractive species. “If you publish a paper in Nature, you’ll probably get a tenure-track job,” he says.
Incentives for paleontologists
A 2022 analysis3 by paleontologists Nussaiba Raja Shub and Emma Dunn of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Erlangen, Germany, and their colleagues reached a related conclusion. They argued that pressure to publish major discoveries in high-profile journals favors charismatic fossils, particularly dinosaurs, over other species.
That pressure, they said, can lead researchers to overlook questions about a fossil’s provenance, legality and accessibility to other scientists.
Source: www.nature.com
