ArticleEcology and evolution2016
Citations increase with manuscript length, author number, and references cited in ecology journals.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- On the makeup of high-impact reviews in ecology.Eco-Environment & Health · 2026Article
- Appraisal of the Use of Proteomics Methodological Approaches and Technologies on Sheep and Goat Research and Clinical Work.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- From Solo to Collaborative: The Global Increase in Neuroscience Authors Over Two Decades.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Historical and ongoing inequities shape research visibility in Latin American aquatic mammal paleontology.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The increasing authorship trend in neuroscience: A scientometric analysis across 11 countries.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2024Article
- Environmental Indicator Plants in Mountain Forests: A Review.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Scientometric Analysis: An Emerging Tool in Veterinary and Animal Scientific Research.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Scientometrics Evaluation of Published Scientific Papers on the Use of Proteomics Technologies in Mastitis Research in Ruminants.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Biases in parasite biodiversity research: why some helminth species attract more research than others.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Article
- Conclusiveness, linguistic characteristics and readability of Cochrane plain language summaries of intervention reviews: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- From Start to Finish: Examining Factors Associated With Higher Likelihood of Publication Among Abstracts Presented at an International Infectious Diseases Scientific Meeting.Open forum infectious diseases · 2022Article
- An Ethical Exploration of Increased Average Number of Authors Per Publication.Science and engineering ethics · 2022Article
- Healthcare Management: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on the Citations of Research Articles Published between 1967 and 2020.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Four key challenges in the open-data revolution.The Journal of animal ecology · 2021Article
- The early bird gets the return: The benefits of publishing your data sooner.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Literary runaway: Increasingly more references cited per academic research article from 1980 to 2019.PloS one · 2021Article
- Article
- Open science, communal culture, and women's participation in the movement to improve science.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Title does matter: a cross-sectional study of 30 journals in the Medical Laboratory Technology category.Biochemia medica · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most top impact factor ecology journals indicate a preference or requirement for short manuscripts; some state clearly defined word limits, whereas others indicate a preference for more concise papers. Yet evidence from a variety of academic fields indicates that within journals longer papers are both more positively reviewed by referees and more highly cited. We examine the relationship between citations received and manuscript length, number of authors, and number of references cited for papers published in 32 ecology journals between 2009 and 2012. We find that longer papers, those with more authors, and those that cite more references are cited more. Although paper length, author count, and references cited all positively covary, an increase in each independently predicts an increase in citations received, with estimated relationships positive for all the journals we examined. That all three variables covary positively with citations suggests that papers presenting more and a greater diversity of data and ideas are more impactful. We suggest that the imposition of arbitrary manuscript length limits discourages the publication of more impactful studies. We propose that journals abolish arbitrary word or page limits, avoid declining papers (or requiring shortening) on the basis of length alone (irrespective of content), and adopt the philosophy that papers should be as long as they need to be.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.