Are conservation biologists working too hard?

The quintessential scientist is exceedingly hardworking and antisocial, and one who would spend countless evenings and weekends buried under her/his microscopes and manuscripts. In an attempt to bust this popular myth, we analyzed the work habits of conservation biologists using data from Biological Conservation’s online manuscript submission system, which includes more than 10,000 manuscript submissions and almost 15,000 reviews from between 2004 and 2012. We found that 11% of new manuscripts and 12% of manuscript reviews were submitted on weekends. Weekend submission rates increased by 5% and 6% for new manuscripts and reviews respectively per year during the study period. Chinese and Indian biologists worked the most on weekends compared to their colleagues elsewhere, submitting 19% of their manuscripts on Saturdays and Sundays. At the other end of the spectrum, Belgians and Norwegians submitted only 4% of manuscripts on weekends. Czech and Polish biologists were the most assiduous weekend reviewers, submitting 27% and 25% of reviews on weekends, respectively. Irish and Belgian reviewers worked the least on weekends, submitting only 6% of reviews during that time. Sixteen percent of new manuscripts were submitted on weekdays after regular office hours – between 19:00 pm and 07:00 am – with the highest rate of nighttime submissions by Japanese (30%), Mexican (26%) and Brazilian (22%) scientists. Finnish, South African and Swiss researchers, however, submitted only 9%, 10%, and 10% of new manuscripts after regular working hours. In general, our results suggest that conservation biologists work extensively on weekends and at night, that the trend for working on weekends is increasing over time, and that these patterns have strong geographical structure. These habits could have negative impacts on the quality of the work as well as on the life-work balance of conservation scientists. Universities and other scientific organizations should allocate more time during regular work hours for scientists to complete their research duties, including the submission and review of manuscripts.