DNA barcoding media coverage in partner nations 2003-2013

We searched publications in iBOL partner nations from January 2003-Dec 2013; 2003 was the publication year of the first paper formally proposing DNA barcoding as a large-scale, standardized system for specimen identification (Hebert et al. 2003). We designed our search algorithms to capture articles with iterations of “Barcode of Life” or “DNA barcoding” found anywhere in the article.

We manually excluded duplicated (identical publications obtained from more than one database) but not syndicated articles (similar/identical articles published in more than one newspaper under one management or derived from a paid service subscription, such as a newswire service), and non-print articles (for example, newswires that were not published). We also excluded a small number of articles in which DNA barcoding referred to activities other than the differentiation of species using a standardized short DNA sequence.