The Science of Birds - What's the Deal With Birds?

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

This episode—which is Number 71—is about one particular scientific article.  An article that’s near and dear to my heart.This study was published in 2020, in the Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews. You already know the title of the study itself. It’s the same as the title of this podcast episode… "What’s the Deal With Birds?"The study's author is Doctor Daniel T. Baldassarre. Listen to the episode to find out why  I love this paper...Links of InterestLab Website of Dr. Daniel T. BaldassarrePredatory Publishing websiteChecklist for submitting a manuscript to a journal: Think.Check.Submit~~ Leave me a review using Podchaser ~~Link to this episode on the Science of Birds website Support the show

Hello and welcome. This is the Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson. The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners. This episode, which is number 71, is about one particular scientific article, an article that's near and dear to my heart. This study was published in 2020 in the Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews. That's the name of the publication, Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews.

With a name like that, surely this is a highly prestigious journal. You already know the title of the study itself. It's the same as the title of this podcast episode. What's the deal with birds? Now look, I like to joke around from time to time, and you probably know that about me. But I'm dead serious here. The actual title of this paper is,

What's the Deal with Birds? No joke. And you'll soon understand why I love this paper. The author is Dr. Daniel T. Baldassarre. Side note, though, I just realized that What's the Deal with Birds would have been a perfectly fitting name for this show, for this podcast. The Science of Birds podcast is basically all about the deal with birds. Okay, without further ado, let me flip open a copy of this paper so I can explain what all the

fuss is about. Here's the opening paragraph. I'm reading to directly from the paper. Quote, birds are very strange. Some people are like, whoa, they're flying around and stuff. What's the deal with that? This sentiment is shared by people across socioeconomic backgrounds. Figuring out what the deal is with birds is of the utmost scientific importance. It is now widely appreciated that the majority of socially monogamous passerine species are weird. In species with moderately high, pair mating and paternal care, we need to understand what is going on with them.

In territorial species, what are they even doing? And they do all sorts of weird stuff. In addition, there is a rich body of literature on how birds, which are very strange feathered creatures, can strengthen the pair bond and signal commitment or directly guard against extra pair copulations. Despite these insights, the relative weirdness of birds, as opposed to other animals is yet untested." End quote. Now, if you've ever read a published scientific paper, you probably noticed that what I just read sounds off. The author of this study, Dr. Daniel Baldassarre, got his Ph.D. at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. He's currently an assistant professor of zoology at the State University of New York. Dr. Baldassarre is a real ornithologist. He

has a top-tier academic background and an excellent publication record. He knows his birds. So why does his paper read like it was written by a seventh grader? Maybe we should read some more. Here's another excerpt. This is from the Materials and Methods section of the paper. Quote, I looked at three different birds, a woodpecker, a parrot, and a penguin. I looked really close at them, squinting and everything, to try and figure out what was up with them. I conducted these experiments at our long-term study site in Sampson Vale, Queensland. Detailed population monitoring and paternity assignment methods are described elsewhere. Briefly, I watched them really close for quite a while. To eliminate potential confounds, I thus conducted my experiments

only on animals that I knew for sure were birds, and no other things like bugs and bats. End quote. And here's one more excerpt. Quote, I have to admit, these birds were weird. I mean, the woodpecker was hopping around on a tree, smashing its bill into the wood. The parrot had a really big bill and was really noisy. And the penguin looked more like a fish. It was swimming around and diving underwater.

Both weirdness and bird appearance were significantly repeatable across the six and two trial datasets. As expected, both were more repeatable when analyzed across the two trials expected to elicit strong, comparable responses, although confidence intervals for repeatability within the two datasets overlapped. End quote. You can see that in between the goofy parts, there are some sentences that at least sound sort of academic and sciencey. And there's just one figure in the paper, one fantastic figure. It's a graph with X and Y axes. There are images of three birds superimposed on the graph,

a penguin, a parrot, and a woodpecker. The extremes of the axes are labeled. One label near the penguin is, looks like a fish. There's also a weird beak label. And of course there's a climate change label at the top of the y-axis. The best part of this figure, though, is the bold red line cutting diagonally across the graph. The line is labeled the deal. So there you go. If you want to know what the deal is with birds, just look at that graph and it'll all make sense. Daniel Baldassarre's paper is clearly a joke, a most excellent one. Even though some sections read like they're serious, the whole thing is total nonsense. If you've listened to the Science of Birds podcast for a while, you know this is just the kind of humor that makes me happy. It's right up my

alley. So hats off to you, Dr. Baldassarre. But the purpose of getting this paper published wasn't just to make us laugh. Comedy generally has no place in scientific publications. That's kind of a bummer, but it is what it is. That's why I have way more fun writing scripts for this podcast than I ever did writing manuscripts for my scientific research. The primary reason Dr. Baldassarre submitted his paper for publication was less than hilarious. He wanted to expose a dark side of the modern academic publishing industry. The fact that this What's the Deal with Birds paper actually got published, in a journal is shocking. That should not have happened. Dr. Baldassarre submitted his manuscript

in the hopes of shining a light on what are called predatory publishers. These are basically fraudulent junk quality journals that make authors pay to get their papers published. When Dr. Baldassarre first submitted his manuscript to the Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews, they tried to charge him $1,700. He managed to talk them down, but many other authors aren't so lucky. These shady predatory publishers only exist because they can make money scamming desperate researchers. They don't screen the articles for quality or legitimacy. You shouldn't have to pay to get published. So why do some researchers fall into this trap? For several reasons, but the biggest driver, I imagine, is the

publish or perish culture in academia. There's a ton of pressure to get papers published. Scientists and other academics are judged by how many papers they get published and how frequently. Normally, a researcher would try to get their manuscripts accepted by the most prestigious, well-respected journals possible.

The journals's nature and science come to mind. Good journals like these have rigorous screening processes. with hardcore peer review of every manuscript. Peer review is where the manuscript gets sent to a few other scientists, and they try to tear it apart. If a manuscript survives that process,

it's much more likely to be of a high quality. But what if you could just submit your manuscript to a low-quality, obscure journal, pay them some money, and basically guarantee that you'll get published, probably without peer review? too easy right at the very least you could pad your resume to look like you have a bunch of published studies it might help you get a job or to keep the one you have is this sketchy yes do i recommend this approach absolutely not predatory publishing is a much much bigger topic and i won't bore you or myself with all the details but it's a real problem when you're trying to figure out how reliable a source is for a published scientific study, you have to be on the lookout for garbage publications like the scientific journal of research and reviews. But it's not always easy for the average person to identify which journals are good or bad. Questioning and

skepticism are fundamental to the scientific process. If you think like a good scientist, you don't just take everything you hear or everything you read at face value. This kind of wariness is more important than ever these days. The rise of predatory publishers, social media, fake news, and all of that stuff means we have to stay on our toes. Because when it comes to birds and ornithology, you and I want to know the real deal. I'll finish off here with one last excerpt from What's the Deal with Birds? At the very end of the paper, the acknowledgements section reads,

We thank Big Bird from Sesame Street for comments on the manuscript, several trained monkeys transcribed videos. Thanks for listening to this short episode. I hope you found it amusing and interesting. I'll put a link to Dr. Baldassarre's lab website in the show notes if you want to see what he and his students. are up to these days. As for me, by the time this episode drops, I'll be in Patagonia, at the far southern end of

South America. I'm flying out tomorrow. I'll be birding and exploring down there for a week and a half. It's a scouting trip for a future Patagonia birding slash nature tour that I hope to lead. I'm super excited, since this is a place I've wanted to get to for a long time. Magellanic Woodpeckers and flightless steamer ducks, here. I come. If you'd like to check out the show notes for this episode, which is number 71, you can find them over on the Science of Birds website, Science of Birds.com.

This is Ivan Philipson, wishing you a lovely day. Until the next time.