Monkey database reveals shift towards open science

A database about monkey behaviour reveals how science is evolving towards a more open, collaborative approach.

MacaqueNet contains social behavioural data from 14 of the world’s 24 species of macaque.

Established in 2017, MacaqueNet has grown into a platform for truly global collaboration, with over 100 members based at 58 institutes across five continents.

It is now the largest publicly searchable and standardised database on animal social behaviour.

The network is introduced in a new research paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

“This is really about shifting towards a more collaborative approach where researchers across different labs, institutions and even continents come together to tackle big questions,” said Dr Delphine De Moor, from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour.

“Through this community effort, we’ve brought together social data on 61 macaque populations from 14 species, representing data documenting the social lives of over 3,000 individual macaques.

“Such large-scale collaborations promote a culture of sharing within the research community, incentivising researchers to contribute their data.”

The new paper describes the establishment of MacaqueNet, from the first steps to creating a large-scale collective, to the creation of a cross-species collaborative database.

With many components openly accessible – and all data available on request – MacaqueNet can act as a fully replicable template for other similar databases in the future.

Macaela Skelton, one of the researchers working on MacaqueNet, has published a blog entitled: “MacaqueNet: Connecting The Dots Through Big-team Comparative Behavioural Research.”