Highly Important Papers in Ecology (HIPE) 

This data set is a collection of Highly Important Papers in Ecology (HIPE). Three files are included: VoteArticles.final.csv : a comma-delimited text file with the vote assessments on the relative quality of the submitted papers (Top 10, Between 11-25, Between 26-100 or Not in the top "100") and an indication of how well each voter knew the paper (Read it, Know it or Don't know it) HIP.refs.txt : tab-delimited text file with all paper bibliographic information citation.csv : a comma-delimited text file with the citation data (Google Scholar, Web of Knowledge) for each paper and each journal (Impact Factor). 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. 

Reading scientific articles is a valuable and major part of the activity of scientists. Yet, with the upsurge of currently available articles and the increased specialization of scientists, it becomes difficult to identify, let alone read, important papers covering topics not directly related to one's own specific field of research, or that are older than a few years. Our objective was to propose a list of seminal papers deemed to be of major importance in ecology, thus providing a general must read list for any new ecologist, regardless of particular topic or expertise. We generated a ranked list of 545 papers from 368 ecology experts (journal editorial members), covering six article types, six approaches, and 17 fields. Most recommended papers were not published in the highest-ranking journals, nor had they the highest number of mean annual citations. The articles proposed through the collective recommendation of several hundred experienced researchers probably do not represent an ultimate, invariant list, but they certainly contain many high-quality articles that are undoubtedly worth reading regardless of the specific field of interest in ecology to foster understanding, knowledge and inspiration of early-career scientists. 

Data not provided.