An experiential, adaptive, inexpensive, and opportunistic approach to research capacity building in the tropics

• Published in: Biotropica Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 555 - 558
• Main Authors: Putz, Francis E., Ruslandi, Roopsind, Anand
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley 01-07-2018; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Canopy gaps; Capacity development; COMMENTARY; Data processing; field courses; Forest conservation; Forest management; pedagogy; publication pressure; research impact; Teachers; Tropical climate; Tropical environments; Tropical forests; Workshops
• ISSN: 0006-3606; 1744-7429
• DOI: 10.1111/btp.12566

Based on intensive field courses on tropical forest management and conservation in Belize, Guyana, Indonesia, and Mexico, we recommend a pedagogical approach designed to help fill scientific mentor gaps where they impede publication by relatively inexperienced scientists. Participants in these 8–12 day field sessions were provided what instructors judged to be novel research topics but then were tasked with refining hypotheses, developing and implementing field studies, analyzing data, rehearsing formal oral presentations, and preparing complete manuscript drafts. Over the subsequent months, the manuscripts were revised for submission to peer-reviewed journals; to date, six were published, one is in review, and two others are close to submission. These were the first publications of most of the participants, some of whom are evaluated by their home institutions partially on the basis of their publication records. These low cost workshops were fun and benefited participants and instructors alike.