If the citation frequency in question is comprised of citations for drunken
driving, then the correlation becomes more understandable. The original
posting was somewhat vague on this point.
Martin Meiss
2010/9/17 William Silvert <cien...@silvert.org>
> An interesting observation. However the two following paragraphs suggest an
> explanation.
>
> With regard to Czech ecologists, given that the Czech Replic is famous for
> its beer and I believe that beer consumption is high, it may well be that
> high citations are associated with a moderate level of alcohol consumption,
> higher than the US average but lower than the Czech average. This would of
> course imply a nonlinear correlation, which most ecologists ignore.
>
> I think that Hochberg's first hypothesis makes sense. I am a great believer
> in informal scientific communication and going to meetings to talk to
> colleagues, which often leads to sitting in bars and writing on napkins. In
> other words, I think that perhaps drinking is a proxy for socialising.
>
> Bill Silvert
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Inouye" <ino...@umd.edu>
> To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
> Sent: sexta-feira, 17 de Setembro de 2010 13:09
> Subject: [ECOLOG-L] alcohol consumption and citation counts
>
>
> But they stand in contrast to a <
>> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2008.16551.x/abstract>2008
>> survey of Czech ecologists by Thomas Grim, also an ecologist. Grim, based at
>> Palacky University in the Czech Republic, found the opposite: that increased
>> levels of beer consumption were associated with lower numbers of citations.
>>
>> Michael Hochberg from the University of Montpellier in France speculated
>> on why - if this were so - highly cited researchers might be pushed to drink
>> more. They might attend more functions, be more "stressed out", or they may
>> just be "past their heyday and drowning their sorrows", he suggested.
>>
>
