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The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area

The term ‘life-history theory’ is a familiar label in several disciplines. Life-history theory has its roots in evolutionary models of the fitness consequences of allocating energy to reproduction, growth and self-maintenance across the life course. Increasingly, the term is also used in the concept...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nettle, Daniel, Frankenhuis, Willem E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6452081/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30914012
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0040
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author Nettle, Daniel
Frankenhuis, Willem E.
author_facet Nettle, Daniel
Frankenhuis, Willem E.
author_sort Nettle, Daniel
collection PubMed
description The term ‘life-history theory’ is a familiar label in several disciplines. Life-history theory has its roots in evolutionary models of the fitness consequences of allocating energy to reproduction, growth and self-maintenance across the life course. Increasingly, the term is also used in the conceptual framing of psychological and social-science studies. As a scientific paradigm expands its range, its parts can become conceptually isolated from one another, even to the point that it is no longer held together by a common core of shared ideas. Here, we investigate the literature invoking the term ‘life-history theory’ using quantitative bibliometric methods based on patterns of shared citation. Results show that the literature up to and including 2010 was relatively coherent: it drew on a shared body of core references and had only weak cluster divisions running along taxonomic lines. The post-2010 literature is more fragmented: it has more marked cluster boundaries, both between the human and non-human literatures, and within the human literature. In particular, two clusters of human research based on the idea of a fast–slow continuum of individual differences are bibliometrically isolated from the rest. We also find some evidence suggesting a decline over time in the incidence of formal modelling. We point out that the human fast–slow continuum literature is conceptually closer to the non-human ‘pace-of-life’ literature than it is to the formal life-history framework in ecology and evolution.
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spelling pubmed-64520812019-04-15 The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area Nettle, Daniel Frankenhuis, Willem E. Proc Biol Sci Evolution The term ‘life-history theory’ is a familiar label in several disciplines. Life-history theory has its roots in evolutionary models of the fitness consequences of allocating energy to reproduction, growth and self-maintenance across the life course. Increasingly, the term is also used in the conceptual framing of psychological and social-science studies. As a scientific paradigm expands its range, its parts can become conceptually isolated from one another, even to the point that it is no longer held together by a common core of shared ideas. Here, we investigate the literature invoking the term ‘life-history theory’ using quantitative bibliometric methods based on patterns of shared citation. Results show that the literature up to and including 2010 was relatively coherent: it drew on a shared body of core references and had only weak cluster divisions running along taxonomic lines. The post-2010 literature is more fragmented: it has more marked cluster boundaries, both between the human and non-human literatures, and within the human literature. In particular, two clusters of human research based on the idea of a fast–slow continuum of individual differences are bibliometrically isolated from the rest. We also find some evidence suggesting a decline over time in the incidence of formal modelling. We point out that the human fast–slow continuum literature is conceptually closer to the non-human ‘pace-of-life’ literature than it is to the formal life-history framework in ecology and evolution. The Royal Society 2019-03-27 2019-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6452081/ /pubmed/30914012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0040 Text en © 2019 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolution
Nettle, Daniel
Frankenhuis, Willem E.
The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title_full The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title_fullStr The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title_full_unstemmed The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title_short The evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
title_sort evolution of life-history theory: a bibliometric analysis of an interdisciplinary research area
topic Evolution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6452081/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30914012
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0040
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