Academic Institutions in the United States and Canada Ranked According to Research Productivity in the Field of Conservation Biology

Conservation biology is a young, but quickly maturing, scientific discipline currently under much scrutiny (Meine et al. 2006). Recent studies highlight what conservation biologists publish (Fazey et al. 2005a), who publishes in the field (Fazey et al. 2005b; Harrison 2006), and where and in what systems conservation research occurs (Lawler et al. 2006). At the same time conservation biology has been criticized for its inability to rapidly disseminate (Kareiva et al. 2002) and communicate (Fazey et al. 2004) research results and for how poorly its research has tracked conservation priorities over time (Lawler et al. 2006). Furthermore, and possibly because the field is still young, graduate programs in conservation biology have not been ranked “by a disciplinary organization such as the Society for Conservation Biology, a governmental panel such as the National Research Council, or even a private effort such as that of the magazine U.S. News and World Report” (Inouye & Brewer 2003). One reason for this lack is the interdisciplinary nature of conservation biology research and training ( Jacobson 1990), which typically results in researchers being scattered