If you are an astute watcher of the PLoS ONE homepage (or the PLoS Blog, or my blog for that matter), you may have noticed that PLoS ONE now has something like a 'theme of the month', i.e., a single, broad topic that we highlight in several different ways on the homepage, blog, in e-mails, etc. We check out the most viewed and downloaded papers on the topic and interview the authors and Academic Editors of those papers, etc. Last month, in May, the theme was Cell Signaling. This month, June '08, the overarching theme is The Birds!
If you search PLoS ONE for bird + avian (keep clicking 'Next' at the bottom of the page again and again), you will see that PLoS ONE has published several dozen interesting articles on various aspects of bird biology. Those articles can be roughly classified into three categories:
- evolution/ecology/conservation
- physiology/neuroscience/behavior
- avian flu
Some papers span two or even all three of the topics (e.g., on the way ecology and behavior of migratory birds affects the epidemiology of bird flu). When we checked the stats to see which bird-related papers have been viewed the most, these articles emerged as our Top 5:
Coevolution of Male and Female Genital Morphology in Waterfowl. Interviews with the author and the Academic Editor of this paper can be found here.
A Visual Pathway Links Brain Structures Active during Magnetic Compass Orientation in Migratory Birds (there is also a brief blurb by the author at the above link).
Leg Disorders in Broiler Chickens: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Prevention
There will be something new about Birds In PLoS every Tuesday night on the ONE homepage this month, as well as one or two Journal Clubs on bird-related papers (do you want to do one of these - call me). As I am a bird-man myself, this makes me happy. I hope you like what we have as well.
Life Science
Comments
I am really grateful that you are including BIRDS in your research papers at PLoS. Thanks and keep up the good work.
This site is a favorite.
Posted by: DonnaB | August 21, 2008 12:32 AM