DOI: 10.5061/dryad.931zcrjx2
title: Data from: Were scientific policies aiming to promote internationalization related with a decline in descriptive taxonomy? Insights from the case of Spanish entomology

description: Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls limit our ability to, respectively,
 describe species and map their distributions. In entomology,
 well-established national scientific communities are essential for
 bridging these shortfalls, given the world's entomofauna crisis.
 However, descriptive taxonomic entomology has arguably lost academic
 appeal in recent decades due to changes in scientific policies. Here, by
 documenting temporal changes in the number of Spanish entomological
 societies and journals in 1900–2020 and the subject matter of PhD theses
 in 1980–2020, we analysed how scientific policies aimed at boosting
 internationalization may have influenced Spanish taxonomic entomology.
 Seventeen societies, 58 journals and 1162 PhD theses were scrutinized. The
 number of entomological societies increased over time and their membership
 either rose or remained stable. Furthermore, the number of journals
 published increased over time up to the early 1980s. The affiliation and
 nationality of authors was stable over time or showed an increase in
 academic and international authorship. However, the scientific policies
 implemented in the late 1980s were related with the disappearance of
 several national journals, especially those published by universities. In
 addition, the percentage of PhD theses dealing with descriptive taxonomy
 and inventorying fell from ca. 40% in the 1980s to ca. 7% in 2016–2020,
 while those tackling molecular taxonomy only increased slowly from 1 to 9%
 in the period 1980–2020. These trends suggest that Spanish entomology
 might not be in a position to overcome Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls in
 the future. Countries implementing similar scientific policies may face
 comparable problems and could learn from the Spanish situation.
description: Data on entomological and natural history journals were compiled
 by means of questionaries sent to editors of Spanish entomological and
 natural history journals, complemented with a search in the data base of
 ICYT (Index of Science and Technology) that compiles all scientific
 journals edited in Spain. Data on entomological and
 natural history societies were compiled by means of questionary sent to
 presidents of Spanish entomological and natural history societies. In a
 few cases, memberhip data were taken from bulletins of each entomological
 society. Data on trends in authorship of Spanish
 journals were compiled directly from each journal. Data
 on trends in topics of Spanish entomological PhD theses were compiled from
 titles and abstracts of thesis included in the TESEO data base.
description: # Data from: Were scientific policies aiming to promote
 internationalization related with a decline in descriptive taxonomy?
 Insights from the case of Spanish entomology
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.931zcrjx2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.931zcrjx2) ## Description of the data and file structure Data aimed to document temporal trends in: 1. Number of entomological and natural history journals edited in Spain from 1900 to 2020. 2. Number of entomological articles published in Spain from 1900 to 2020. 3. Number of entomological and natural history and entomological societies existing in Spain from 1900 to 2020. 4. Number of members of each entomological and natural history society in Spain from 1900 to 2020. 5. Percentage of articles authored by entomologists linked to an academic institution for entomological and natural history journals edited in Spain, from 1980 to 2020. 6. Percentage of articles authored by Spanish (vs. non Spanish) entomologists entomological and natural history journals edited in Spain, from 1980 to 2020. 7. Topics of entomological PhD theses defended in Spain from 1980 to 2020. ### Files and variables #### File: Raw\_data\_Journals\_Articles\_Societies\_Membership\_Authorship\_PhD\_theses.xls **Description:**  Four sheets are provided: **Sheet 1:** List of natural history and entomological journals edited in Spain through time. The number of articles published per year are indicated for each journal. When no information is available, X is indicated. NA indicate that the journal was not edited in a given year. Variables in this sheet are: Journal name: offical name of the journal. Articles included: Entomology indicates that only entomological articles were scored. All indicates that all articles were scored. --- indicates that no article was scored. Editor: Society indicates that the responsible for editing the journal was an entomological or natural history society; Museum indicates that a museum was responsible for editing the journal; Research council indicates that a research council was responsible for editing the journal; University indicates that a university was responsible for editin the journal; Independent indicates that a group of independent people, not attached to any society or institution, were responsible for editing the journal. Publication period: the first and last year the journal was published is indicated. nowadays indicates that the journal was still published in 2020. (cont.) indicates that the journal ceased to be published in the last year indicated, but the journal continued under another name. (ext.) indicates that the journal ceased to be published in the last year indicated. JRC indexed: No is indicated if the journal is not indexed in JCR or SJR. --- indicates that the journal is not currently published. JCR/SJR is indicated if the journal is indexed in JCR and SJR indexes. SJR is indicated if the journal is included in the SJT index. 1900-2020: in this set of columns, the number of articles published per journal and year are shown. NA is indicated if the journal did not exist. X is indicated if the journal published a volumen in the given year but the number of articles is not known. Minimum: this column shows the minimum number of entomological or natural history articles published by the journal in the period 1900-2020. NA is indicated if no value is available. Maximum: this column shows the maximum number of entomological or natural history articles published by the journal in the period 1900-2020. NA is indicated if no value is available. Average: this column shows the average number of entomological or natural history articles published by the journal in the period 1900-2020. NA is indicated if no value is available. Number of years: this column shows the number of years in which the journal edited a volume in the period 1900-2020. NA is indicated if no value is available. **Sheet 2:** The time interval in which each journal was edited is indicated. Variables in this sheet are: Society name: official name of the entomological or natural history society. 1900-2020: in this set of columns, the number of members per society and year are shown. NA is indicated if information was not available. Empty cells indicate that the society was not existant in that year. **Sheet 3:** For nine Spanish entomological or natural history journals, the number of articles published per year (1980-1984, 1990-1994, 2000-2004, 2010-2014) that had academic vs. non-academic authors, or Spanish vs. non-Spanish authors is indicated. The variables in this sheet are: Journal: journal code. Code of journal abbreviations is indicated in the column K of the sheet. Year: year in which the number of entomological or natural history articles were scored. Academic, Non_academic, National, Non*national, *Mixed nationalities, Percentage acad, Percentage nat are explained in the column K of the sheet. **Sheet 4:** Number of entomological PhD theses defended per year from 1980 to 2020. The variables in this sheet are: Year: year scored. PhDtheses: number of entomological PhD theses defended in Spain in the year indicated. Time period: decades or periods of five years studied. Taxonomy: number of PhD theses on morphological taxonomy defended. DNA taxonomy: number of PhD theses on taxonomy defended, using DNA or molecular methods Faunistic: number of PhD theses on faunistics defended. Ecology: number of PhD theses on ecological entomology defended. Applied: number of PhD theses on applied entomology defended. Physiology/Genetics: number of PhD theses on physiological or genetical entomology defended. Paleontology: number of PhD theses on paleoentomology defended. Columns M to S show the percent of PhD theses devoted to each topic above, calculated over the total of PhD theses defended in each temporal period. Note that a given PhD thesis can be scored in several topics, so percentages do not necessarily add to 100.