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By Regi Reyes
Over the summer, XULA BUILD Project Pathways Research student Jordan Wise participated in the Stanford Summer Research Program and worked under Rodolfo Dirzo, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Although Wise is a biology major at Xavier University of Louisiana and has plans to attend medical school, his mentor, Suzanne Ou, suggested that he study country diversity within the first authors in the field of ecology. Although previously Wise was not particularly interested in ecology, the research subject intrigued him.
Wise took data from Journal Ecology and analyzed first authors and their respective countries from 1921-2019. He also looked to see if country income played a significant role in his findings. He found that though first authors’ publications had become more diversified in recent years, it was still heavily dominated by the global north and mostly the United States. His research also indicated that income was a factor since the majority of publishers came from high-income countries.
“Science is deeply colonized, meaning that most of science is done by Global North countries, i.e. USA and United Kingdom. Because of this, a lot of Global South Countries don’t get the same recognition. Especially within the field of ecology where most research is being done from countries outside of tropical regions.” Wise said about his findings.
Wise found this lack of diversity also contributed to errors in the publishings, as there was sample bias and misleading works present in many publications. He believes that overall, his research sheds light on how editors and collaborators need to allow more Global South countries to be represented amongst their journal articles.
For his virtual presentation, Wise was awarded with the “Best Overall Presentation” through the program.
