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Updated: May 4, 2026

Knowing What Counts: Unbiased Stereology in the Non-human Primate Brain
Published on: May 14, 2009
Disproportional representation of primates in the ecological literature
Eckhard W Heymann1, Dietmar Zinner, Jörg U Ganzhorn
1Abt. Verhaltensökologie & Soziobiologie, Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
We address the question why papers dealing with the ecology of primates are so sparsely represented in the general ecological literature. A literature analyses based on entries in Web of Science and PrimateLit reveals that despite a large number of papers published on primates in general and on the ecology of primates, only a very small fraction of these papers is published in high-ranking international ecological journals. We discuss a number of potential reasons for the disproportion and highlight the problems associated with experimental research on wild primates and constraints on sample size as major issues.
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