Fame, glory and neglect in meta-analyses

Ecology increasingly relies on data synthesis and integration. We fear, however, that the academic culture and merit system in ecology has not evolved in pace with the emergent need for increased collaboration. In particular, meta-analyses, which are often based on a large number of independent data sets, are reliant on the collection of primary data, and the willingness of field and experimental researchers to share these data. Therefore, it is vital that this empirical work and expertise should be adequately valued. Foremost, all contributed data and expertise must be properly acknowledged by at least a citation of the original work in a form that is indexed by ISI Web of Science and, where appropriate, by offering data collectors the option to contribute to the work as coauthors.