Through 100 years of Ecological Society of America publications: development of ecological research topics and scientific collaborations

• DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2109
• Publication Date: 2018-02-14T14:53:18Z
• Authors: Ji Yoon Kim; Gea‐Jae Joo; Yuno Do
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 13. Climate action; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences

AbstractWe reviewed the texts from 22,179 publications in journals published in the last 100 yr by the Ecological Society of America. We quantified the relative use of terms and identified temporal trends and research collaborations using text‐mining methods. Terms concerning ecological topics at the population level such as structure, function, and competition and terms relating to the influences of environmental factors were frequently used throughout this century. Relative use of higher hierarchical levels (i.e., ecosystem, landscape) has rapidly increased, but the use of population and community was stable. Research collaboration networks revealed geographically concentrated clusters at the organizational level. To understand global‐scale ecosystem processes and responses, multinational collaboration in ecological fields should increase. Our review further demonstrates the importance of conserving historical ecological texts as they reflect the attitude of the ecological community toward academic concepts over time.