Scopus CiteScore metrics integrated with Pensoft journals

Having long been indexed by the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature – Scopus, Pensoft journals published on the ARPHA journal publishing platform have now accommodated its latest handy products.

Both Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker have been integrated with journals published by Pensoft on ARPHA, so that evidence of their impact can be easily provided on a monthly, as well as yearly basis. The metrics are already visible on the homepages of 15 journals published by Pensoft.

Scopus calculates its CiteScore through a simple formula based on the average citations received per document.

The yearly CiteScore is how many times papers published in the previous three years with a single journal are cited in that particular year.

Meanwhile, the CiteScoreTracker provides an estimate on a monthly basis. Since the citation count builds up every month, it is still consistent with the complete year’s score, providing helpful information for a journal’s current performance. Furthermore, it ensures that journals which have only recently been indexed by Scopus are quick to receive their own CiteScore.

To provide an impact estimate as robust and reliable as possible, Scopus CiteScore relies on both the largest database of peer-reviewed literature, and inclusiveness of all publication types. While the latter is necessary in order to acknowledge the scientific value of all academic papers that have found their place in a scholarly journal, it also significantly reduces the risk of metrics manipulation.

To further illustrate the impact of Pensoft publications, a direct citation feed has recently been integrated that shows the number of Scopus citations for a particular publication. Accessible from a tab visible in each publication is a count of scholarly articles that have cited it in Scopus, in addition to previously integrated Crossref, Google Scholar and PubMed.

cited tab

 

“Integrating Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker with all Pensoft journals and potentially with all journals published on ARPHA is what I believe to be of great benefit to all our present and future users, readers and editorial team,” says Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev. “It is a fantastic way to keep a real-time track of our progress and impact in the scientific community.”

“We are delighted that Pensoft are including CiteScore metrics on their journal pages. They join a selection of early adopting publishers that recognise the need to provide their users with a range of indicators to better measure the impact of their journals,” says Chris James, Product Manager Research Metrics at Elsevier, who is responsible for CiteScore.

Data Quality Checklist and Recommendations at Pensoft

As much as research data sharing and re-usability is a staple in the open science practices, their value would be hugely diminished if their quality is compromised.

In a time when machine-readability and the related software are getting more and more crucial in science, while data are piling up by the minute, it is essential that researchers efficiently format and structure as well as deposit their data, so that they can make it accessible and re-usable for their successors.

Errors, as in data that fail to be read by computer programs, can easily creep into any dataset. These errors are as diverse as invalid characters, missing brackets, blank fields and incomplete geolocations.

To summarise the lessons learnt from our extensive experience in biodiversity data audit at Pensoft, we have now included a Data Quality Checklist and Recommendations page in the About section of each of our data-publishing journals.

We are hopeful that these guidelines will help authors prepare and publish datasets of higher quality, so that their work can be fully utilised in subsequent research.

At the end of the day, proofreading your data is no different than running through your text looking for typos.

 

We would like to use the occasion to express our gratitude to Dr. Robert Mesibov, who prepared the checklist and whose expertise in biodiversity data audit has contributed greatly to Pensoft through the years. Continue reading “Data Quality Checklist and Recommendations at Pensoft”

New species of frog from the Neotropics carries its heart on its skin

In the Neotropics, there is a whole group of so-called glassfrogs that amaze with their transparent skin covering their bellies and showing their organs underneath. A recently discovered new species from Amazonian Ecuador, however, goes a step further to fully expose its heart thanks to the transparent skin stretching all over its chest as well as tummy.

The new amphibian is described by a team of scientists led by Dr. Juan M. Guayasamin, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, in the open access journal ZooKeys.

It can also be distinguished by the relatively large dark green spots at the back of its head and the foremost part of the body. Additionally, the species has a characteristic long call.

The new frog is named Hyalinobatrachium yaku, where the species name (yaku) translates to ‘water’ in the local language Kichwa. Water and, more specifically, slow-flowing streams are crucial for the reproduction of all known glassfrogs.

The reproductive behaviour is also quite unusual in this species. Males are often reported to call from the underside of leaves and look after the egg clutches.

Having identified individuals of the new species at three localities, the researchers note some behavioural differences between the populations. Two of them, spotted in the riverine vegetation of an intact forest in Kallana, have been calling from the underside of leaves a few metres above slow-flowing, relatively narrow and shallow streams. Another frog of the species has been observed in an area covered by secondary forests in the Ecuadorian village of Ahuano. Similarly, the amphibian was found on the underside of a leaf one metre above a slow-flowing, narrow and shallow stream.

oo_135330However, at the third locality – a disturbed secondary forest in San José de Payamino – the studied frogs have been perching on leaves of small shrubs, ferns, and grasses some 30 to 150 cm above the ground. Surprisingly, each of them has been at a distance greater than 30 metres from the nearest stream.

The researchers note that, given the geographic distance of approximately 110 km between the localities where the new species has been found, it is likely that the new species has a broader distribution, including areas in neighbouring Peru.

The uncertainty about its distributional range comes from a number of reasons. Firstly, the species’ tiny size of about 2 cm makes it tough to spot from underneath the leaves. Then, even if specimens of the species have been previously collected, they would be almost impossible to identify from museum collection, as many of the characteristic traits, such as the dark green marks, are getting lost after preservation. This is why the conservation status of the species has been listed as Data Deficient, according to the IUCN Red List criteria.

Nevertheless, the scientists identify the major threats to the species, including oil extraction in the region and the related water pollution, road development, habitat degradation and isolation.

“Glassfrogs presumably require continuous tracts of forest to interact with nearby populations, and roads potentially act as barriers to dispersal for transient individuals,” explain the authors.

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Original source:

Guayasamin JM, Cisneros-Heredia DF, Maynard RJ, Lynch RL, Culebras J, Hamilton PS (2017) A marvelous new glassfrog (Centrolenidae, Hyalinobatrachium) from Amazonian Ecuador. ZooKeys 673: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.673.12108

Three new mini thorn snails described from Georgia (USA), Belize and Panama

Although computer tomography (CT) is widely used in medicine, its application in micro snail identification is still at the pioneering stage.

However, Dr Adrienne Jochum from the Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern (NMBE), Switzerland and her interdisciplinary team of German and Swiss scientists (Dr. Alexander M. Weigand, University of Duisburg-Essen, Estee Bochud and Thomas Inäbnit, NMBE and the University of Bern, Dorian D. Dörge, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Dr. Bernhard Ruthensteiner, Zoologische Staatssammlung Muenchen, Dr. Adrien Favre, Leipzig University, Gunhild Martels and Dr. Marian Kampschulte, Justus-Liebig University Giessen) have recently applied it in their research, now published in the journal ZooKeys.

CT SCAN C. hardieiAs a result of their revolutionary approach, the scientists report three new thorn snail species – tiny, colourless and highly fragile creatures that measure less than 2 mm and belong to the genus Carychium.

Much like X-rays showing the degree of damage in broken bones, CT scans provide access to snail shells. Differences, such as the degree of sinuosity of the potato chip-like wedge (lamella), elegantly gliding along the spindle-like columella, become visible. These structures provide stability and surface area to exert muscular traction while manoeuvring the unwieldy shell into tight cavities. The alignment and degree of undulation of the lamella on the columella is also used by malacologists (mollusc specialists) to identify different thorn snail species.

Conventionally, examination of this signatory character requires cutting a hole in the shell with a fine needle under the microscope. This tedious method requires a much patience and dexterity and, all too often, the shell cracks open or disintegrates into dust under pressure. By exposing the delicate lamella to non-manipulative CT scans, Dr. Jochum and her team have found the best method to differentiate not only thorn snails but also many other micro creatures.

Together with G. Martels and Dr. M. Kampschulte, Dr. Jochum described new micro snails for the first time using CT in East Asian hypselostomatid snails in 2014. The first subterranean Asian relative of the thorn snails (Koreozospeum nodongense), was also described by Dr. Jochum thanks to CT scans in 2015.

The scientists studied and compared thorn snails collected from Mexico, Florida (USA) and Costa Rica.

Curiously, the new species Carychium hardiei was discovered by accident by Dr. Jochum en route to the Atlanta Airport during a rest stop in Georgia (USA). The snail is named after the American naturalist and field biologist Frank Hardie. Another species, Carychium belizeense, was found in the Bladen Nature Reserve in Belize and is named after its country of origin. The third, Carychium zarzaae from Panama, is named after Eugenia Zarza, collector of material for this study, including this species.

In total, there are fourteen species of thorn snails known in North and Central America. Their distribution ranges from as far north as northern Ontario, Canada through North America (including Bermuda and Jamaica) and south through Central America to Costa Rica. Thorn snails also live as far north as northern Sweden and as far south as sub-equatorial Java. Worldwide, this genus spans the Nearctic, Palearctic and Indomalayan biogeographic realms.

Thorn snails live in tropical and temperate forests, meadows and riparian zones, where they comprise the decomposer community in leaf litter of ecologically stable environments.

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Original Source:

Jochum A, Weigand AM, Bochud E, Inäbnit T, Dörge DD, Ruthensteiner B, Favre A, Martels G, Kampschulte M (2017) Three new species of Carychium O.F. Müller, 1773 from the Southeastern USA, Belize and Panama are described using computer tomography (CT) (Eupulmonata, Ellobioidea, Carychiidae). ZooKeys 675: 97-127. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.675.12453

Conservation and nameless earthworms: Assessors in the dark?

Species that live exclusively in a single region are at a particular risk of extinction. However, for them to be protected, thorough assessments of the environmental impacts need to be performed.

There are more than 100 earthworm species living in the soil and dead wood of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Most of them live exclusively in small regions in the province, which makes them extremely vulnerable.

To scientists Dr Adrian J. Armstrong, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, and Ms Thembeka Nxele, KwaZulu-Natal Museum, the problem is twofold. Firstly, they note that the expression “out of sight, out of mind” is very suitable for the case of the endemic earthworms in South Africa. Secondly, they point out that the lack of common names for these species is a stumbling block that hinders their inclusion in conservation assessments.

As a result, the researchers try to rectify this situation by assigning standardised English names to the endemic earthworms in KwaZulu-Natal. Their article is published in the open access journal African Invertebrates.

Scientific names are often intractable to non-specialists, and the lack of common names leaves environmental assessors in the dark when they need to figure out which earthworms may occur at a development site. In the meantime, it has been found that about 50% of the native vegetation in KwaZulu-Natal has already been removed as a result of infrastructure construction and the figure is rising.

“The indigenous earthworms generally don’t survive in developed areas,” say the authors.

For instance, the informal use of an English name (green giant wrinkled earthworm) for the species Microchaetus papillatus, has facilitated the inclusion of this species in environmental impact assessments in KwaZulu-Natal.

While the green giant wrinkled earthworm does occur in a relatively large and rapidly developing area in KwaZulu-Natal, other species live in smaller areas that have been urbanised even more.

The extinction of these earthworms is not only undesirable from the point of view of biodiversity advocates – the role of this group of soil organisms is impossible to replace fully with non-native earthworms. For example, some of the large indigenous earthworms (more than 1 m in length) burrow much deeper than the non-native species, thereby enriching and aerating the soil at greater depth.

The authors are hopeful that by giving the indigenous earthworms in KwaZulu-Natal common names, the threatened and endemic species will be conserved through inclusion in environmental impact assessments. Furthermore, they believe that earthworms could draw attention to the areas where they occur whenever a choice for new protected areas is to be made.

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Original source:

Armstrong AJ, Nxele TC (2017) English names of the megadrile earthworms (Oligochaeta) of KwaZulu-Natal. African Invertebrates 58(2): 11-20. https://doi.org/10.3897/AfrInvertebr.58.13226

Herpetologists describe an elf frog from the elfin forests in southern Vietnam

Deep in the foggy, moss-covered forests of Southern Vietnam, herpetologists uncovered one of the smallest species of horned mountain toads.

The name of the new amphibian (Ophryophryne elfina) derives from European mythology and translates to “elfish eyebrow toad”. Despite being recently discovered, the new species is already considered to be endangered. Having remained hidden in the highlands of Langbian Plateau, it is now described in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The unique species name “elfina” derives from the English word “elf”. In German and Celtic folklore, elves are described as small, supernatural creatures usually dwelling deep in the forests of magical hills. The frogs were named after them primarily because of their small size of around 3 cm, which makes them the smallest known species of the genus – as well as their fascinating appearance – they have small horn-like projections above their eyes.

The unique habitat of the amphibians also inspired their species name. The Elfin mountain toad lives in the highland wet subtropical evergreen forest. There it can only be found on mountain summits higher than 1800 m, or on the slopes of the eastern side of Langbian Plateau, where the rainfall is high because of the sea nearby. Both the rocks and the dwarf curbed trees are covered with a heavy layer of moss, whilst a thick misty fog is constantly lingering amongst the trees. This is why such wet mountain ecosystems are known as elfin forests.

The Elfin mountain toad is one of the three known species in the genus Ophryophryne that inhabit Langbian Plateau. Curiously, all three of them share the same habitat, but can be easily distinguished by their advertisement calls resembling whistling birds.

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Original source:

Poyarkov Jr NA, Duong TV, Orlov NL, Gogoleva SS, Vassilieva AB, Nguyen LT, Nguyen VDH, Nguyen SN, Che J, Mahony S (2017) Molecular, morphological and acoustic assessment of the genus Ophryophryne (Anura, Megophryidae) from Langbian Plateau, southern Vietnam, with description of a new species. ZooKeys 672: 49-120. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.672.10624

What could be the importance of marine and coastal cultural ecosystem services

A detailed scientific literature review published in the open access journal One Ecosystem confirmed that research on marine and coastal cultural ecosystem services is scarce compared to other ecosystem service categories, revealing curious insights and identifying major knowledge gaps.

Available knowledge is not only primarily focused on local and regional sociocultural or economic assessments, but is also mostly coming from Western Europe and North America (USA and Canada). Largely underrepresented, the Global South has only a few studies in South America, Madagascar, and China. Remarkably, no marine and coastal cultural ecosystem services assessments were found in any country of the African continent.

“Such research bias narrows the understanding of social-ecological interactions to a western cultural setting, undermining the role of other worldviews in the understanding of a wide range of interactions between cultural practices and ecosystems worldwide” explain the study authors led by João Garcia Rodrigues.

In addition to this regional bias, the authors have identified clusters of co-occurring drivers of change affecting marine and coastal habitats and their cultural ecosystem services. Damming, land reclamation, tourism and industrial fishing were among the identified drivers of change.

The main knowledge gaps found were the lack of integrated valuation assessments; linking the contribution of cultural ecosystem service benefits to human well-being; assessing more subjective and intangible classes; identifying the role of open-ocean and deep-sea areas in providing these services; and understanding the role of non-natural capital in the co-production of cultural ecosystem services. “Research priorities should be aimed at filling these knowledge gaps” explain the authors.

Overcoming such challenges can result in more balanced decisions that will ultimately contribute to more sustainable interactions between humans and the marine environment. The authors highlight that “cultural ecosystem services are strong motivations for people to embrace sustainability, and hence their inclusion in environmental decision-supporting mechanisms can contribute to a more sustainable future for marine and coastal ecosystems”.

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Original Source:

Garcia Rodrigues J, Conides A, Rivero Rodriguez S, Raicevich S, Pita P, Kleisner K, Pita C, Lopes P, Alonso Roldán V, Ramos S, Klaoudatos D, Outeiro L, Armstrong C, Teneva L, Stefanski S, Böhnke-Henrichs A, Kruse M, Lillebø A, Bennett EM, Belgrano A, Murillas A, Sousa Pinto I, Burkhard B, Villasante S (2017) Marine and Coastal Cultural Ecosystem Services: knowledge gaps and research priorities. One Ecosystem 2: e12290. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.2.e12290

Dig it! Two new shrimp species found in burrows at the bottom of the Gulf of California

Although the Santa María-La Reforma lagoon complex in the Gulf of California is one of the most important areas for shrimp fishery, little is known about the crustacean species that live in the burrows dug in the bottom.

In addition to presenting two species new to science, researchers Drs. José Salgado-Barragán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Manuel Ayón-Parente and Pilar Zamora-Tavares, both affiliated with Universidad de Guadalajara, México collaborated to build on the knowledge of small shrimp species living there. The study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Over the span of about two years – between 2013 and 2015, the scientists conducted series of surveys of the bottom-dwelling crustaceans in Bahía Santa María-La Reforma lagoon, located in the southwest Gulf of California. Following a thorough examination of the collected specimens, they recorded five shrimp species of three genera, inhabiting burrows dug into either mud, sand, or sandy-mud. Two of these species turned out to be previously unknown.

One of the new species is named Alpheus margaritae after Dr. Margarita Hermoso-Salazar, a caridean shrimp expert who helped the authors with the identification of the species. This new crustacean lives in the intertidal zone, where it hides in soft mud and gravel of shells and rocks. So far, it is known exclusively from the coastal lagoon Bahía Santa María-La Reforma, Sinaloa, Mexico. Among its characteristic traits are creamy-white colouration splashed with sparse olive green to light brown patches.

The second new species, Leptalpheus melendezensis, is reported to live in the fine sand of the beach. It is named after the Melendez island – the only locality the species has been identified from. Unlike the rest seven members of its genus (Leptalpheus), its major cheliped lacks adhesive disks.

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Original source:

Salgado-Barragán J, Ayón-Parente M, Zamora-Tavares P (2017) New records and description of two new species of carideans shrimps from Bahía Santa María-La Reforma lagoon, Gulf of California, Mexico (Crustacea, Caridea, Alpheidae and Processidae). ZooKeys 671: 131-153. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.671.9081

New butterfly species discovered in Israel for the first time in 109 years

Vladimir Lukhtanov, entomologist and evolutionary biologist at the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, made a startling discovery: what people had thought was a population of a common species, turned out to be a whole new organism and, moreover – one with an interesting evolutionary history. This new species is named Acentria’s fritillary (Melitaea acentria) and was found flying right over the slopes of the popular Mount Hermon ski resort in northern Israel. It is described in the open access journal Comparative Cytogenetics.

“To me, it was a surprise that no one had already discovered it,” says Vladimir Lukhtanov.

“Thousands of people had observed and many had even photographed this beautifully coloured butterfly, yet no one recognised it as a separate species. The lepidopterists (experts in butterflies and moths) had been sure that the Hermon samples belonged to the common species called Persian fritillary (Melitaea persea), because of their similar appearance, but nobody made the effort to study their internal anatomy and DNA”.

In 2012, Vladimir Lukhtanov, together with his students, initiated an exhaustive study of Israeli butterflies using an array of modern and traditional research techniques. In 2013, Asya Novikova (until 2012, a master’s student at St. Petersburg University and, from 2013, a PhD student at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem) sampled a few fritillaries from Mt. Hermon.

It was at that time when the researchers noticed that the specimens “didn’t look right” – their genitalia appeared different from those of the typical Persian fritillary. Over the next few years, Lukhtanov and his students studied this population in-depth. They carried out sequencing DNA from the specimens and found that they had a unique molecular signature – very different from the DNA of any other fritillary.

The Acentria’s fritillary seems to be endemic in northern Israel and the neighbouring territories of Syria and Lebanon. Its evolutionary history is likely to prove interesting.

“The species is probably one of a handful of butterflies known to have arisen through hybridisation between two other species in the past,” says Lukhtanov. “This process is known to be common in plants, but scientists have only recently realised it might also be present in butterflies.”

This is the first new butterfly species discovered and described from the territory of Israel in 109 years.

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Original source:

Lukhtanov VA (2017) A new species of Melitaea from Israel, with notes on taxonomy, cytogenetics, phylogeography and interspecific hybridization in the Melitaea persea complex (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Comparative Cytogenetics 11(2): 325-357. https://doi.org/10.3897/CompCytogen.v11i2.12370

How bears bulk up ahead of the summer: A study into the Asiatic black bear’s spring diet

Much like gym enthusiasts, every year Asiatic black bears seem to be on the lookout for protein-rich food ahead of the summer, so that they can bulk up on lean muscle mass in place of the fat tissue formed last year prior to hibernation. This was concluded in a study by Dr. Shino Furusaka, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and his team, based on direct observations on bears living across an area of about 60 km2 in Japan. The study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

In order to determine the bears’ food preferences and habits, the scientists followed a large number of animals in the Ashio area of the Ashio-Nikko Mountains in Japan from April to July in both 2013 and 2014. To avoid unnecessary intrusion, they stayed at a distance of at least 200 metres using video cameras with telescopic lenses to document the sightings. Having documented the plant species the bears consumed, the researchers studied their nutritional content and made conclusions about the nutrients needed for the species after hibernation.

While heavily dependent on food availability, generally the bears were noted to prefer food which is high in protein, but poor in fibre — likely because their stomachs and intestines were unable to efficiently digest the latter. Furthermore, the protein-rich diet ensures that the muscle mass is rebuilt to replace the lost winter fat.

Interestingly, the bears were observed to change their food preferences as spring progressed and that seemed to be linked to the shifts in the nutritional value of the available food.

Starting with their observations at the beginning of April, the scientists did not record any feeding behaviour until the end of the month. As leaf flush was yet to occur, the animals were active and feeding on overwintered grass. However, in early May, the bears began consuming newly emerged leaves, grass and, later in the month, they added flowers to their menu.

A shift in behaviour occurred in the following months. In June and July, the bears were seen to feed mainly on ants, with a small portion of their food intake consisting of grasses, sika deer carcasses and bees. Curiously, when the scientists looked into the nutritional content of the same plants which the animals sought only a few weeks ago, they found out that now they were significantly poorer in protein and richer in fibre.

Another finding showed that the calories in the different items were not related to the choice of food which likely proves that the key factor is none other than the amount of protein, provided that the fibre value is low enough for good digestibility.

Understanding the food preferences and habits of animals, as well as the reasons behind them, is essential for the development and revision of habitat management plans. However, previous knowledge of the feeding behaviour of Asiatic black bears has been based solely on faecal analyses which has not provided sufficient details on which nutritional factors influence the use of particular foods.

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Original source:

Furusaka S, Kozakai C, Nemoto Y, Umemura Y, Naganuma T, Yamazaki K, Koike S (2017) The selection by the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) of spring plant food items according to their nutritional values. ZooKeys 672: 121-133. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.672.10078