DOI: 10.5061/dryad.stqjq2cd1
title: Data from: A framework for sharing power in research teams and promoting justice in scientific publication

description: Many ornithologists seek tools to work more equitably with people from
 historically marginalized and exploited groups. We developed a process to
 promote collective construction of ornithological knowledge in the special
 feature "Ecology and conservation of cavity nesters in the
 Neotropics'' for the journals Ornithology and Ornithological
 Applications. Colonialism produces systems that consecrate eurocentric
 ideas from dominant nations (including Canada, USA, and countries of
 western Europe) and reinforce hierarchies of power between and within
 regions. Recognizing these systems, we proposed a special feature to
 support, highlight, and connect teams from Latin America, a region
 historically exploited by imperial powers. We adopted sociocracy, a
 governance model that promotes sharing of power, to create the proposal
 and organize the call for papers and to write a review and this
 perspective article. We adopted and developed transparent, consent-based
 decision-making processes, including a process for determining authorship
 order. We crafted open invitations, used collective proposals (structured
 brainstorming), encouraged citation of work from regional journals, tested
 a system for manuscript submission and review in Spanish, and introduced
 mechanisms for multi-way feedback. This framework helped reduce some
 barriers commonly faced by historically marginalized authors, distribute
 power more equitably, and recognize a broader diversity of contributions
 to ornithology. Despite these efforts, several challenges remained. For
 example, the publishing interests of Ornithology, Ornithological
 Applications, and most high impact ornithological journals are often
 poorly aligned with current research priorities in many parts of Latin
 America (e.g. reproductive biology of endangered species). We encourage
 scientists at all career stages, technicians, and non-academics to reflect
 on their citation politics (which sources they cite, and how their
 citation practice may unintentionally reproduce inequities), and to
 implement collective workflows that promote equitable sharing of power
 within research teams.
description: We downloaded all 33 articles included in the three Special
 Features of American Ornithological Society journals published in
 2020–2023 from the following web pages: https://academic.oup.com/aosjournals/pages/advances-in-avian-diet, https://academic.oup.com/aosjournals/pages/species-limits-and-taxonomy, and https://academic.oup.com/aosjournals/pages/advances-in-neotropical-ornithology. We also downloaded all nine articles included in the Special Feature that four of us convened: "Ecology and Conservation of Cavity nesters in the Neotropics" (2024–2025). For each article, we consulted the author list and affiliations, and indicated whether the affiliation was in a country of the Neotropics (South America, Caribbean, and Central America, including all of Mexico).
description: # Data from: A framework for sharing power in research teams and promoting
 justice in scientific publication
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2cd1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2cd1) ## Description of the data and file structure We collected the data to calculate the proportion of authors affiliated in the Neotropics in Special Features of the two journals of the American Ornithological Society, *Ornithology* and *Ornithological Applications*. ### Files and variables #### File: Cockle\_et\_al\_2025\_Sharing\_Power\_data.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * ID Paper: Article identifier provided by the journal. * Source: Article version (Published, accepted, page proof, or online early). * Special Feature Name: Which special feature the article was part of (Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, Advances in Avian Diet Methods and Applications, Species Limits and Taxonomy in Birds, or Ecology and Conservation of Cavity Nesters in the Neotropics. * Article: Abbreviated authors and topic of article. * Author order: Author position in author list at top of article. * Name: Full name of author. * Any affiliation in Neotropics 1_yes 0_no: Did the author list any affiliation in a country of South America, the Caribbean, or Central America (including Mexico)? NA indicates Not Applicable because the author is a group without a single geographical location. * First author first affiliation in Neotropics 1_yes 0_no: Did the first author list their first affiliation in a country of South America, the Caribbean, or Central America (including Mexico)? NA indicates Not Applicable because the author in question is not the first author of the paper.