scholarly journals A Century of Peer-reviewed Australian Zoological Research: Prominent Authors, Themes and Usage of Papers from Australian Zoologist

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Calver ◽  
Heather M. Crawford ◽  
Douglas Fletcher

ABSTRACT The peer-reviewed Australian Zoologist, first published in 1914, is Australia’s longest-lived zoological journal. Its publication history shows changes in the zoological topics covered over the last 100 years, including the animals studied, characteristics of the authors and readership, and the influence of the databases used to study the journal on information retrieval. Searches in different databases retrieved different numbers of papers; Scopus (including secondary documents not in the database but cited by documents that are in the database) was the most comprehensive. Although authors from 22 countries contributed papers over the history of the Australian Zoologist, over 90% of authors were Australian. Most international authors came from the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Approximately two-thirds of authors citing Australian Zoologist were Australian-based, but there were still 10 or more authors from each of thirty-four other countries citing Australian Zoologist: while regional, the journal has an international profile. Highly cited papers in Australian Zoologist had high mean Scopus percentile ranks (20th century 83.9, 21st century 73.7), indicating that in comparison to their fields globally, these papers are used well above average. Considering all papers published in Australian Zoologist, over time the proportion of papers in the categories ‘Biodiversity & Conservation’ and ‘Environmental Sciences & Ecology’ rose significantly, reflecting the increased research in these areas. Between 2013 and 2019, when relevant metrics are available in Scopus, Australian Zoologist declined in no metric measured while improving significantly in CiteScore, Highest Percentile, and % Cited, indicating increasing references to Australian Zoologist papers by other peer-reviewed publications. Between 2010 and 2019, 2.1% of Australian Zoologist papers were ranked within the top 10% in their fields globally, based on citation impact. Authors considering publishing in Australian Zoologist should note that longer papers are acceptable, colour imagery (including photographs) is encouraged, the journal is visible in major databases, it is cited internationally and there are no page charges.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Ben R. Evans ◽  
Iris Möller ◽  
Tom Spencer

Salt marshes are important coastal environments and provide multiple benefits to society. They are considered to be declining in extent globally, including on the UK east coast. The dynamics and characteristics of interior parts of salt marsh systems are spatially variable and can fundamentally affect biotic distributions and the way in which the landscape delivers ecosystem services. It is therefore important to understand, and be able to predict, how these landscape configurations may evolve over time and where the greatest dynamism will occur. This study estimates morphodynamic changes in salt marsh areas for a regional domain over a multi-decadal timescale. We demonstrate at a landscape scale that relationships exist between the topology and morphology of a salt marsh and changes in its condition over time. We present an inherently scalable satellite-derived measure of change in marsh platform integrity that allows the monitoring of changes in marsh condition. We then demonstrate that easily derived geospatial and morphometric parameters can be used to determine the probability of marsh degradation. We draw comparisons with previous work conducted on the east coast of the USA, finding differences in marsh responses according to their position within the wider coastal system between the two regions, but relatively consistent in relation to the within-marsh situation. We describe the sub-pixel-scale marsh morphometry using a morphological segmentation algorithm applied to 25 cm-resolution maps of vegetated marsh surface. We also find strong relationships between morphometric indices and change in marsh platform integrity which allow for the inference of past dynamism but also suggest that current morphology may be predictive of future change. We thus provide insight into the factors governing marsh degradation that will assist the anticipation of adverse changes to the attributes and functions of these critical coastal environments and inform ongoing ecogeomorphic modelling developments.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Dingtao Hu ◽  
Xiaoqi Lou ◽  
Nana Meng ◽  
Qiaomei Xie ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The outcomes of smoking have generated considerable clinical interest in recent years. Although people from different countries are more interested to the topic of quit smoking during the winter, few studies have tested this hypothesis. The current study aimed to quantify public interest in quit smoking via Google.Methods: We use Google Trends to obtain the Internet search query volume for terms relating to quit smoking for major northern and southern hemisphere countries in this research. Normally search volumes for the term “quit smoking + stop smoking + smoking cessation” were retrieved within the USA, the UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia from January 2004 to December 2018. Seasonal effects were investigated using cosinor analysis and seasonal decomposition of time series models.Results: Significant seasonal variation patterns in those search terms were revealed by cosinor analysis and demonstrated by the evidence from Google Trends analysis in the representative countries including the USA (pcos = 2.36×10-7), the UK (pcos < 2.00×10-16), Canada (pcos < 2.00×10-16), Ireland (pcos <2.00×10-16) ,Australia (pcos = 5.13×10-6) and New Zealand (pcos = 4.87×10-7). Time series plots emphasized the consistency of seasonal trends with peaks in winter / late autumn by repeating in nearly all years. The overall trend of search volumes, observed by dynamic series analysis, declined from 2004 to 2018.Conclusions: The preliminary evidence from Google Trends search tool showed a significant seasonal variation and decreasing trend for the RSV of quit smoking. Our novel findings in smoking cessation epidemiology need to be verified with further studies, and the mechanisms underlying these findings must be clarified.


2021 ◽  
pp. 285-304
Author(s):  
Ivana Křížková ◽  
Meng Le Zhang ◽  
Dan Olner ◽  
Gwilym Pryce

AbstractInthischapter, we highlight the importance of social frontiers—sharp spatial divisions in the residential make-up of adjacent communities—as a potentially important form of segregation. The handful of studies estimating the impacts of social frontiers have been based in the USA and the UK, both of which are free-market democracies with a long history of immigration, ethnic mix and segregation. There are currently no studies of social frontiers in former socialist countries, for example, or in countries where immigration and ethnic mix are only a recent phenomenon or non-existent. This chapter aims to address this research gap by estimating the impacts of social frontiers on crime rates in a post-socialistcountry, Czechia. We demonstrate how a Bayesianspatial conditional autoregressive estimation can be used to detect social frontiers in this setting, and we use a fixed effect quasi-Poisson model to investigate the impact on crime. Our results suggest that in new immigration destinations, social frontiers may not be associated with higher rates of crime, at least in the short run. Moreover, our use of cultural distance measures helps to promote a more nuanced approach to studying the impact of segregation and highlights the role of cultural diversity in understanding the link between immigrant segregation and crime. We reflect on how this approach could contribute to the study of segregation and inequality in the Chinese context.


Author(s):  
Anna Chalmers

In 1996 the national libraries of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the USA took part in a study of their experiences with strategic management. A literature review had identified 15 key aspects of strategic management. Respondents were asked their views of the importance of each aspect, and how satisfied they were with the library's achievement of it. In every case the importance attached to the aspect was greater than the library's satisfaction with achievement. Each library was also asked to nominate from a checklist the reason or reasons why it had produced its first strategic document. The centrality of the digital information environment to the core functions of national libraries has been highlighted by the study.


Author(s):  
Tony Ralli

From its small beginnings in 1981 of six pilot users and the National Library of Australia (NLA), the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) has grown to be a truly national system, with 1,315 users at May 1995. The National Bibliographic Database has expanded to over 11 million records and 22 million holdings statements. It includes records from the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. It has come to be the single union list of holdings of Australian libraries, and the first point of reference for the majority of interlibrary loan transactions. The ABN is seen as both an NLA business and a cooperative undertaking of Australian libraries. Management consists of a Network Committee, which advises the Director General of NLA on all aspects of operation, and a Standards Committee, whose role is to make recommendations to NLA on cataloguing standards for the network. Annual Users' Meetings are held. Since 1987 NLA has been developing a database host for Australian libraries called OZLINE, in parallel with ABN. In 1990 it was decided to go for complete redevelopment using a text retrieval product and an industry standard Relational Database Management System. Following discussions with the National Library of New Zealand, which had indicated broadly similar requirements, it was agreed that the two libraries would jointly seek a system. The Australian service is to be known in future as WORLD 1.


Author(s):  
Lei Liu ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Su-Qin Jiang ◽  
Zi-Rong Zhong ◽  
Ting-Zheng Zhan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background This study aims to understand whether there is a seasonal change in the internet search interest for Toxoplasma by using the data derived from Google Trends (GT). Methods The present study searched for the relative search volume (RSV) for the search term ‘Toxoplasma’ in GT within six major English-speaking countries (Australia, New Zealand [Southern Hemisphere] and Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA [Northern Hemisphere] from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2019, utilizing the category of ‘health’. Data regarding the RSV of Toxoplasma was obtained and further statistical analysis was performed in R software using the ‘season’ package. Results There were significantly seasonal patterns for the RSV of the search term ‘Toxoplasma’ in five countries (all p&lt;0.05), except for the UK. A peak in December–March and a trough in July–September (Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA) were observed, while a peak in June/August and a trough in December/February (Australia, New Zealand) were also found. Moreover, the presence of seasonal patterns regarding RSV for ‘Toxoplasma’ between the Southern and Northern Hemispheres was also found (both p&lt;0.05), with a reversed meteorological month. Conclusions Overall, our study revealed the seasonal variation for Toxoplasma in using internet search data from GT, providing additional evidence on seasonal patterns in Toxoplasma.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Walters ◽  
Michael Quinlan

The activism of coalmining unions in Australia, the UK, the USA and elsewhere securing improvements in safety including better legislation in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been widely researched and acknowledged. However, a relatively neglected aspect of this history was a campaign to secure worker inspectors (check-inspectors). These began in coalmining a century before similar measures were introduced for workers more generally as part of overhauling occupational health and safety laws in the 1970s/1980s. We document this struggle for mine safety in Australia and New Zealand, and the activities of check-inspectors in the period to 1925. Notwithstanding strong opposition from coal-owners and conservative governments, check-inspectors played an important role in safeguarding coalminers and improving the regulatory oversight of coalmines. Check-inspectors not only gave coalminers a ‘voice’ in OHS, but they also provided an exemplar of the value and legitimacy of worker’s ‘knowledge activism’. This system remains. Furthermore, the struggle is relevant to understanding contemporary debates about collective worker involvement in occupational health and safety. JEL Codes: J28, J51, J81


1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Meadows

Objective:To provide background information on the approach of area based funding models for mental health services, to describe the considerations which have come to bear in the development process of the Victorian model, to explore the impacts of different models, and to suggest courses for further development. Method:The history of this approach to funding in the UK and the USA is summarised, then an account is given of the development of the Victorian model. The position is put that the validation of such models is hampered by having only sparse relevant data. Suggestions are made for improving this situation. Results:The Victorian model has come to include adjustments for socioeconomic disadvantage, the age, sex and marital status structure of the population, and a variable discounting for estimated substitutive activity of the private sector. Different methods of combining these adjustments into a working formula can be seen to have very different impacts. Conclusions:The approach taken in development of this model can be expected to have major influence on funding within Victoria, but also more widely in Australia. The impacts of differing assumptions within these models are significant. Specifically targeted epidemiological research, and activity analysis of the private sector will be necessary to enhance the validity of models of this type.


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