{"id":11324,"date":"2020-07-09T09:23:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T08:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/?p=11324"},"modified":"2020-07-21T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:36:15","slug":"why-we-publish-our-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2020\/07\/09\/why-we-publish-our-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we publish our science"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Japanese sardines to the effects of mackerel grazing on plankton in New Zealand, Environment Monitoring and Assessment Programme Manager Dr Bill Turrell<\/a> explains why a 25-year-old Marine Scotland Science paper on understanding mackerel in Scotland is still having an impact today.<\/p>\n

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Recently a notification popped into my inbox which prompted me to write this blog \u2013 about why scientists publish their work, and why Marine Scotland Science is a fantastic place to work, and a fantastic resource for Scotland, having multiple marine science disciplines all within one place.<\/p>\n

It was an email from ResearchGate<\/a> which notified me that someone had just cited a paper I was involved in back in 1995 with the Marine Laboratory\u2019s expert on mackerel for many years \u2013 Martin Walsh. Back then he wrote many papers describing the migration and distribution of mackerel, and in 1995 he asked myself an oceanographer, and a fisheries acoustic scientist to collaborate to produce the paper with the snappy title \u201cUnderstanding mackerel migration off Scotland: Tracking with echosounders and commercial data, and including environmental correlates and behaviour<\/a>\u201d (ICES Journal of Marine Science 52(6):925-939).<\/p>\n

Firstly, it was of course a great paper. But the reason it existed at all was because Martin could pop into an oceanographer\u2019s office down the corridor, and ask him about environmental conditions affecting his mackerel, and then collar a fisheries acoustician to ask him to help find and track his mackerel. That is what we have always been great at doing; bringing together many disciplines to study a subject in a holistic way.<\/p>\n

Publishing science<\/strong><\/h4>\n

So, why is it important for scientists to publish their science? Well, ResearchGate<\/a> tells me that our 1995 mackerel paper has been cited 42 times since it was published.<\/p>\n

The most recent citation that triggered the notification, and which caught my eye, was by a paper<\/a> studying the heavy metal content of frozen fish being consumed in Nigeria. It surprised me that our study was used in relation to this subject, but it has been cited by two other similar papers. We helped the authors put into context the life history of fish being eaten in Africa. (Although some sharp-eyed readers may note that the journal this paper was published in might well make it into Beall\u2019s List<\/a> \u2013 but that may be the subject of another blog).<\/p>\n

\"Preparing<\/a>

Preparing acoustic releases in the hydro lab, old Scotia, 1995. Photo courtesy of George Slesser.<\/p><\/div>\n

This led me to look at other reasons why authors used our study. These were (number of citations in brackets):<\/p>\n