PLOS and DataSeer expand partnership to better understand researchers’ Open Science practices

Business Announcement

PLOS

SAN FRANCISCO —The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and DataSeer today announced an extended partnership that will provide new insights on how PLOS journals support Open Science practices. Earlier this year, PLOS and DataSeer collaborated on a project to quantify code sharing at PLOS Computational Biology. This expanded partnership will allow PLOS to assess three key “Open Science Indicators” – code sharing, preprint posting, and sharing of data in repositories – across all its journals and content. And more indicators will be developed next year.

“To increase adoption of Open Science and realize its benefits, we need to understand if researchers have adopted these practices, what the barriers to adoption are, and understand how these differ between communities,” said Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Director, Open Research Solutions, PLOS. “We are excited to work with DataSeer to better understand the researchers we serve, and help improve adoption of a range of Open Science practices.”

DataSeer will initially analyze more than 66,000 PLOS articles published from 2019 to present, and then repeatedly analyze newly-published content each month. They’ll provide PLOS with information on the use of data repositories, public sharing of code, and sharing of preprints. This is a first of its kind initiative by a publisher and PLOS will share the first set of results when the analysis is completed later this year.

Having already collaborated with DataSeer to adapt their natural language processing and artificial intelligence-driven technology to measure code sharing, DataSeer is now creating capability to analyze preprint sharing, to combine with DataSeer’s proven methodology for assessing research data sharing.

“We are excited to work with PLOS to explore how authors share different research objects with a published article,” said Tim Vines, Founder & Director, DataSeer. “This information is vital to both understanding researchers’ practices and to drive systemic change in research and scholarly publishing.”

PLOS and DataSeer will also look at relevant content outside of PLOS to better assess the same Open Science Indicators at other journals and make comparisons. As well as helping PLOS better serve research communities in their adoption of Open Science practices, PLOS aims to share the Open Science Indicator data with researchers, policy makers, institutions and other publishers to empower them to make informed decisions about their own policies and practices.

The introduction of new solutions for sharing protocols, code, research data, and preprints in the last two years is intended to support PLOS’ goal of making Open Sciences practices the norm.

About the Public Library of Science

PLOS is a nonprofit, open access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Since our founding in 2001, PLOS journals have helped break boundaries in research communication to provide more opportunities, choice, and context for researchers and readers. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.

About DataSeer

DataSeer brings the power and scalability of Artificial Intelligence to promoting Open Science. We help stakeholders like journals, funding agencies, or institutions monitor & showcase their research outputs. We also guide individual researchers through sharing the data, code, and protocols that underlie their articles. Through our partnerships with research stakeholders, DataSeer will empower the Open Science revolution. Find out more at https://www.dataseer.ai/

ResearchGate and EDP Sciences announce content partnership

ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and EDP Sciences, an international academic publisher specializing in scientific, technical, and medical disciplines, today announced a content syndication partnership.

Business Announcement

RESEARCHGATE

‍Berlin (Germany) September 13, 2022 – ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and EDP Sciences, an international academic publisher specializing in scientific, technical, and medical disciplines, today announced a content syndication partnership that will see the addition of content from over 30 open access (OA) journals to ResearchGate. 

The agreement will be piloted for a limited duration and involves the syndication of content from EDP Sciences' open access journals from a range of disciplines, including the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, Acta Acustica, and all six Web of Conferences proceedings journals. 

Authors of the content will see their articles added automatically to their publication pages on ResearchGate, giving them access to statistics showing the impact of their work, and enabling them to connect with their readers. As well as simplifying the process of uploading work for authors, this partnership helps make sure that the Version of Record is always available. 

In time, the overall aim of EDP Sciences is to become a full open access publisher and to transition its entire portfolio of journals into full open access journals. Therefore, any initiatives which facilitate the discovery of new research and make science more open and more accessible are well worth pursuing. In doing this, EDP Sciences recognizes changing research habits and shows it is prepared to support researchers wherever they choose to spend their time and conduct their research. 

Agnès Henri, Managing Director, EDP Sciences: “We continuously strive to maximize the reach and impact of our publications and to better fulfill the publishing mandate entrusted to us by society partners. We are confident this partnership with ResearchGate will help us to engage current and future authors and facilitate better connections within our research communities.”

Ijad Madisch, CEO and co-founder of ResearchGate: “Interdisciplinary research is vital to scientific progress. At ResearchGate, we focus on connecting scientists from diverse disciplines so that they can drive this very necessary progress. EDP Sciences has been making research accessible for over a hundred years, and we’re delighted to be working with them to make research from many different fields available on ResearchGate.” 

‍About ResearchGate‍

ResearchGate is the professional network for researchers. Over 20 million researchers use researchgate.net to share and discover research, build their networks, and advance their careers. Based in Berlin, ResearchGate was founded in 2008. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all.

ResearchGate media contact:
Mark Howard-Banks
press@researchgate.net‍

About EDP Sciences‍

EDP Sciences was established in 1920 by a prestigious academic community of French learned societies seeking to inspire, innovate and inform others by sharing their knowledge. Members of this community included eminent scientists like Marie Curie, Paul Langevin and Louis de Broglie. Today, EDP Sciences publishes high-quality scientific journals, conferences proceeding, books and magazines in a broad range of scientific, technical and medical disciplines.

These tiny coral reef fish parents decide when their embryos hatch

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

 

VIDEO: A MALE NEON GOBY REGULATES THE HATCHING OF EMBRYOS WITHIN A SPAWNING SHELTER. TO INDUCE HATCHING, THE MALE GOBY PICKS UP EMBRYOS FROM THE CLUTCH USING ITS MOUTH, SWIMS TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE SHELTER AND SPITS FREE-SWIMMING LARVAE INTO THE WATER COLUMN. CREDIT: view more 

CREDIT: JOHN MAJORIS

PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Leaving the comfort and safety of home to explore the world is a difficult decision. However, in a tiny coral reef fish called a neon goby, dads help their offspring take the plunge by pushing them out the door when the time is just right.

A new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B from The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute and collaborators, provides the first documented case of a coral reef fish directly regulating when its offspring hatch. Male neon gobies hatch their embryos by removing eggs from the nest with their mouth, transporting the newly-hatched larvae to the opening of the sponge where neon gobies live—and then spitting them out of the sponge entrance.

Hatching is the most vulnerable time in the life of coral reef fishes, which makes choosing when to hatch a crucial decision.

“We often think that eggs are like tiny kitchen timers: they develop for a set period of time, then—ding!—they hatch,” said John Majoris, a research scientist at UT Austin and corresponding author on the study. “But, in many species, embryos have to actively decide when to hatch.”

In the lab, Majoris and colleagues found that neon goby embryos that develop without their parents hatch less synchronously, underdeveloped and up to 50% earlier than embryos cared for by their parents.

Somehow goby parents appear to know the best time for their embryos to hatch: all of the male parents in the study hatched their offspring at sunrise on the seventh day of embryonic development. And embryos that receive parental care waited for their parents to choose the right time for them to hatch.

“Goby embryos are ready and waiting,” Majoris said. “When parents are around, they wait patiently for their dads to make the call that it’s time to hatch.”

Offspring hatched by their parents are larger and more developed than those that hatch on their own, which may give them a fin up when it comes to catching food, escaping predators and navigating the open ocean.

While many fish parents care for their eggs by fanning, guarding and cleaning the nest, this is the first time scientists have discovered a coral reef fish that tells its offspring when to hatch. But it’s possible that parental hatching regulation is more common than previously understood. Cryptobenthic coral reef fishes—a group of tiny, skittish bottom dwellers—often lay their eggs deep in reef crevices, where it is difficult for embryos to judge hatching conditions. In this case, parents can help out by assessing the outside environment and hatching their eggs at just the right time. 

“This is a remarkably complex parenting behavior for a tiny fish,” Majoris said. “It goes to show that we still have so much to learn about life in our oceans.”

This research highlights the surprising complexities of fish parenting behavior and provides evidence that, just like humans, fish parents can make adaptive decisions based on the local conditions that influence the survival, resilience and success of their offspring.

John Majoris conducted this research at Boston University and is joined by co-authors Fritz Francisco of the Technical University of Berlin, Simon Brandl of The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science and Corrine Burns, Karen Warkentin, and Peter Buston from Boston University. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation, and a Dana Wright Summer Research Fellowship.

A male neon goby regulates the hatching of embryos within a spawning shelter. To induce hatching, the male goby picks up embryos from the clutch using its mouth, swims to the entrance of the shelter and spits free-swimming larvae into the water column.

CREDIT

John Majoris

Embryos of neon goby fish.

CREDIT

John Majoris

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2022.1466 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Paternal care regulates the timing, synchrony, and success of hatching in a coral reef fish

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Sep-2022

Study: Baby Kinda baboons become independent faster if moms are social, dominant

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: STUDY: BABY KINDA BABOONS BECOME INDEPENDENT FASTER IF MOMS ARE SOCIAL, DOMINANT view more 

CREDIT: VIDEO BY STEVE FILMER/ASU NEWS. IMAGES AND CLIPS COURTESY MEGAN PETERSDORF, LECTURER AT DURHAM UNIVERSITY, AND RUBY MUSTILL, ANTHROPOLOGY STUDENT AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

New research shows female Kinda (kihn-dah) baboons who have strong social connections with other female and male baboons, or are more dominant, have babies who become independent faster than others.

India Schneider-Crease, an evolutionary anthropologist at Arizona State University recently published a paper about her findings that took eight years of data collection in Zambia. The paper, “Stronger maternal social bonds and higher rank are associated with accelerated infant maturation in Kinda baboons," is published in Animal Behaviour. 

“One possible benefit of this is that if the infant is able to mature faster, it can start feeding independently more quickly,” Schneider-Crease said. “The female can redirect her energy into maintaining her own condition and getting herself ready to get pregnant again and invest in another baby.”

To schedule an interview with Assistant Professor Schneider-Crease please contact us and she can talk more about the Kasanka Baboon Project and her work at ASU.

Story with additional details here.

More images and B-roll in video.  

About ASU
Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to access, excellence and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. As the prototype for a New American University, ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.

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JOURNAL

Animal Behaviour

ARTICLE TITLE

Stronger maternal social bonds and higher rank are associated with accelerated infant maturation in Kinda baboons

Research of a wild primate shows maternal effects key to gut microbial development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A BABY GELADA FORAGING IN SIMIEN MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK IN ETHIOPIA. THEIR EARLY-LIFE GUT MICROBIOME, FROM INFANCY THRU FIRST YEARS OF LIFE, ARE SHOWN TO BE MATERNALLY INFLUENCED AS THEY GET OLDER. view more 

CREDIT: SHARMI SEN

The bacteria that reside in the human gut (“the gut microbiome”) are known to play beneficial and harmful roles in human health. Because these bacteria are transmitted through milk, mothers can directly impact the composition of bacteria that their offspring harbor, potentially giving moms another pathway to influence their infant’s future development and health.

Now, a study of wild geladas (a non-human primate that lives in Ethiopia) provides the first evidence of clear and significant maternal effects on the gut microbiome both before and after weaning in a wild mammal. This finding, published in Current Biology, suggests the impact of mothers on the offspring gut microbiome community extends far beyond when the infant has stopped nursing.

A research team co-led by Stony Brook University anthropologist Dr. Amy Lu, and biologists Dr. Alice Baniel and Dr. Noah Snyder-Mackler at Arizona State University, came to this conclusion by analyzing one of the largest datasets on gut microbiome  development in a wild mammal.

They used high throughput DNA sequencing to identify and characterize the bacteria residing in the guts of young geladas, and identified 3,784 different genetic strains of bacteria belonging to 19 phyla and 76 families. However, this diversity was not equally distributed across the developmental spectrum: similar to what is seen in humans, younger infants had the least diverse microbial communities that gradually became more diverse as they got older. These changes reflected what the infant was eating, specifically when they switched from consuming milk to consuming more solid foods. These diet-focused bacteria actually help infants process foods - for instance, milk glycans, which cannot be digested without the help of bacteria. 

However, it was the team’s findings of strong maternal effects on the infant gut microbiome both before and after weaning that was the most groundbreaking. “Infants of first-time moms showed slower development of their gut microbiota, meaning that their guts were specialized toward milk digestion for longer compared to kids from other moms. This may put offspring of newer moms at a slight developmental disadvantage,” said Baniel. “In addition, even after infants were weaned, their microbiome community was more similar to mom’s than to other adult females in the population, suggesting that mom’s may be sharing microbes with their offspring.”

According to Lu, “Early life gut microbial development is known to have a large impact on later life health in humans and other model organisms. Now we have solid evidence that mothers can influence this process, both before and weaning. Although we’re not 100% certain how mothers do this, one possible explanation is that they transfer specific bacteria to their offspring.”

According to Snyder-Mackler, “these early life changes might have far-reaching consequences–impacting the health and survival of these offspring once they become adults.” Future work from this research team is therefore going to examine how differences in the gut microbiome during infancy influence other aspects of development, such as growth, the maturation of the immune system, or the pace of reproductive maturation. Luckily, because they are continuing to study the same infants as they age, they’ll eventually be able to link the infant gut microbiome and the early-life maternal effects to health, reproduction, and survival in adulthood. 

The research was funded by several grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Leakey Foundation, and from the University of Michigan, Stony Brook University, and Arizona State University.

 

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.037 

ARTICLE TITLE

Maternal effects on early-life gut microbiota maturation in a wild nonhuman primate

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Sep-2022

Keeping to a beat is linked to reproductive success in male Rock Hyraxes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: A MALE ROCK HYRAX IN THE EIN GEDI NATURAL RESERVE SINGING. view more 

CREDIT: AMIYAAL ILANY

A behavioural study published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Animal Ecology has linked reproductive success in male rock hyraxes to their ability to maintain rhythm during courtship songs.

You only need to take a look at the adoring fans of famous musicians to realize being rhythmically skilled is a desirable trait. In male rock hyraxes, singing frequency and rhythm could be seen as indicators of individual quality by potential mates – signalling information about their health and suitability as a partner.

“We have been studying hyraxes for the past 20 years and have previously found several patterns in their songs that are common features of human language and music,” said Dr Vlad Demartsev, now a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, who collected the data for this study during their time at Tel Aviv University.

“Their songs have regional dialects so individuals living in proximity sing more similarly to each other. They tend to sing in crescendo (getting louder as the song progresses) and reach peak complexity towards the end of their songs, maybe to keep the audience engaged and listening to the signals.”

Rhythm plays a crucial role in the communication of some animals. “One assumption is that rhythm has evolved so that animals that call in groups can better synchronize their songs – like musicians in a band or singers in a choir," explains Dr Vlad Demartsev.

However, unlike many other animals known to communicate through song, hyraxes usually sing alone.

To investigate the role of rhythm in mammalian courtship songs scientists observed the daily morning activity of hyrax communities between 2002 and 2013 in Ein Gedi Natural Reserve, eastern Israel. The researchers captured information about the hyrax's location, behaviours, and vocalizations while recording the identities of their nearest neighbours. Genetic information for each hyrax was then analysed alongside audio recordings back at the lab.

Publishing their findings in the British Ecological Society Journal of Animal Ecology, the researchers showed that, while singing, hyrax males keep a stable isochronous rhythm, with sounds occurring at regular intervals.

Dr Lee Koren, who co-founded the hyrax study with Dr Eli Geffen, and is now a researcher at the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University said: “Male hyraxes that sing more frequently tend to have more surviving offspring. Song rhythms and stability are related to reproductive success and thus potentially hold information about individual quality.”

Since certain physiological ailments may have a negative effect on the ability of hyraxes to produce precise, rhythmic calls, the researchers suggest male hyrax courtship song rhythm could be an indicator of health and suitability as mates to prospective female partners.

Speaking of the future for this field of research, Dr Vlad Demartsev added: “It would be fascinating to compare animal species who sing individually and species that sing in groups.”

Rhythm has now been shown to act as an advertisement for individual quality in some species, while in others it helps in coordinating signals from different individuals within a group. However, it's not yet known if different rhythmic patterns are used for these two different functions.

CAPTION

A male rock hyrax in the Ein Gedi Natural Reserve singing.

CREDIT

Eran Gissis

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The vocalisations of a male rock hyrax in the Ein Gedi Natural Reserve.

CREDIT

Lee Koren

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The vocalisations of a male rock hyrax in the Ein Gedi Natural Reserve.

CREDIT

Lee Koren

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JOURNAL

Journal of Animal Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2656.1380 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Male rock hyraxes that maintain an isochronous song rhythm achieve higher reproductive success

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2022

Keep the beat!

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

Rhythmic accuracy pays off, as researchers from Konstanz (Germany) and Israel show in their behavioural study on the courtship song of the rock hyrax. Males that sang more often and kept the beat with greater precision had higher reproductive success than their less rhythmically accurate peers.

When it comes to courtship songs in the animal kingdom, most people probably think of songbirds greeting the dawn – to the delight of some and the annoyance of others. But there are also species of mammals in which the males try to charm females by singing. One of them is the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), a land-living mammal common to the western part of the Near East and to Africa.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, researchers from the University of Konstanz (Germany), Tel Aviv University (Israel), and Bar Ilan University (Israel), have now taken a closer look at the song of the rock hyrax. They observed the animals in the Ein Gedi Natural Reserve in eastern Israel and recorded their songs, which they later analyzed in the laboratory together with genetic samples from individual males. The researchers focused on the question of whether there is a link between the rhythmic characteristics of the song and the reproductive success of the animals.

Rhythm as a sign of good health
It has been known for quite some time that rhythm plays a role not only in our music but also in the communication of some animals. "One assumption is that rhythm has evolved so that animals that call in groups can better synchronize their songs – like musicians in a band or singers in a choir", says Dr Vlad Demartsev, first author of the study and currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz.

From an evolutionary perspective, however, rhythm could also serve the function of signalling the health condition and thus the suitability of the male as a sexual partner to the females. "The reasoning here is that certain physical or physiological limitations inevitably have a negative effect on the ability to produce precise, rhythmic calls", Demartsev explains a second common hypothesis about the evolution of rhythm in animal songs.

In the current study, the researchers were able to show, by combining acoustic analyses and long-term genetic assessment of relatedness, that males with a high proportion of rhythmically precise elements in their courtship song produced more offspring than those with a lower proportion. In addition, males that sang more frequently than their peers had a slightly higher reproductive success.

Since rock hyraxes usually sing alone and not in a choir, it is likely that the aspect of song synchronization did not play a decisive role in the evolution of their rhythmic courtship songs. "The fact that rhythmically stable males produce more offspring rather supports the assumption that high rhythmic stability serves as an indicator of male quality for females and, thus, is particularly attractive to them", Demartsev says.

 

Key facts: Original publication: Vlad Demartsev, Michal Haddas-Sasson, Amiyaal Ilany, Lee Koren, Eli Geffen (2022) Male rock hyraxes that maintain an isochronous song rhythm achieve higher reproductive success. Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.1380 Dr Vlad Demartsev is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz and a Humboldt Research Fellow. The published data were collected during his time at Tel Aviv University (Israel). Funding: Israel Science Foundation, U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

 

Note to editors:

You can download photos here:

Link: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2022/immer_schoen_c_eran_gissis_2.png
Caption: Male rock hyrax singing
Copyright: Eran Gissis

Link: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2022/immer_schoen_c_eran_gissis.png
Caption: Male rock hyrax singing
Copyright: Amiyaal Ilany

 

A sound file and a video can be found at:

Link: https://soundcloud.com/amiyaal-ilany/rock-hyrax-song
Copyright: Amiyaal Ilany

Link: https://youtu.be/_6uJ53guwMo
Copyright: Eyal Bartov

 

Contact:
University of Konstanz
Communications and Marketing
Phone: + 49 7531 88-3603
Email: kum@uni-konstanz.de

- uni.kn/en

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Animal Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2656.1380 

ARTICLE TITLE

Male rock hyraxes that maintain an isochronous song rhythm achieve higher reproductive success.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2022