Surveying knowledge production in New Zealand ecology: towards a resilient publication system

Scientific knowledge production in the form of scientific publication is an increasingly connected and global endeavour, and institutional and funding pressures make it likely that studies addressing local questions may become less frequent and less obvious in the literature. We used the Scopus database and a focused subset of research published in ecological journals to evaluate trends in scientific publishing in New Zealand from 1980–2020 in the broad field of biological and environmental sciences. We evaluated research on New Zealand's ecological systems by authors affiliated with a New Zealand institution and published in an ecological journal. In some ways, these bodies of research reflect widespread trends in science: increasing productivity, larger author teams, and increasing international connectivity. However, published research about New Zealand's ecological systems has slowed compared to biological and environmental research published by New Zealand scholars. There have been changes through time in the subjects considered. For example, New Zealand-focused ecological publications have increasingly emphasised conservation and invasion biology. Likewise, there have been shifts in collaborations between different groups of institutes (e.g. universities and Crown Research Institutes) and the amount of research published by them. One outcome of these changes has been the development of a distinctive local literature (i.e. specific topics have retreated to local journals, while others have become internationalised). We conclude by considering some potential challenges that local journals face in the current publishing environment, and how a more resilient local ecological publishing community might be developed.