CUSTOS E BENEFÍCIOS DA SOCIALIDADE EM VERTEBRADOS: UMA ABORDAGEM DAS TENDÊNCIAS DE PUBLICAÇÕES CIENTÍFICAS EM 50 ANOS DE ESTUDOS

Abstract

COSTS AND BENEFITS OF GROUP LIFE IN FORAGING CONTEXT IN VERTEBRATES: A
TREND APPROACH OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS IN 50 YEARS OF STUDY.  The majority
of vertebrates have a tendency to form conspecific groups that interact and their group life occurs through a balance between costs and benefits of the individuals living in groups. Numerous papers have been published
discussing this subject. Our main objective for the present work was to evaluate the tendency of publications
on costs and benefits of group life, particularly in foraging groups, in vertebrates, using the SCOPUS
database for 50 years (1960-2009). The analysis was made considering two costs (Parasites Transmission
and Intraspecific Competition) and four benefits (Increased Foraging, Decreased Vigilance, Confusion Effect
and Dilution Effect). The number of publications was evaluated in relation to the following items: journal of
the publication, year and taxonomic group. The survey totaled 1,038 papers from 90 journals, seven journals
were responsible for 49.8% of the total number of papers. There was an increase in the number of papers
published over the sampled years, with Vigilance highlighted as a theme for the major increase in number of
papers published. Among the themes of costs and benefits of group life, Vigilance was the most common (n =
598) and independent of the theme, mammals and birds were the most studied groups (n = 501 and n = 370,
respectively). When the number of publications on the costs and benefits related to the sampled groups was
investigated, Competition (n = 127), Parasites Transmission (n = 20) and Foraging (n = 84) were themes more
frequently studied for mammals, while Confusion (n = 18) was more frequent for fishes and Vigilance for birds
(n = 271) and mammals (n = 256). Dilution was a theme studied in similar proportion for all sampled groups.
The results of the present study indicate an increase of interest in studies related to group life by researchers
dealing with behavior, which is reflected by the higher number of papers published over the sampled period,
particularly in journals of high impact factor.
Keywords: Scientometrics; behavior; group life.