ArticleBioscience2017
Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution.
Abstract read
In one paragraph
Article in Bioscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
27citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Quantifying research waste in ecology.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Pooled it
- A call for minimum standards in methodological reporting for studies using animal-borne accelerometers.Animal biotelemetry · 2026Article
- Approaching Significance: Statistical Guidance for Authors and Reviewers.Journal of neurologic physical therapy : JNPT · 2025Article
- Developing a new protocol for monitoring vegetation in limestone pavement.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- New opportunities and challenges for conservation evidence synthesis from advances in natural language processing.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025Article
- Testing the reproducibility of ecological studies on insect behavior in a multi-laboratory setting identifies opportunities for improving experimental rigor.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Computationally reproducing results from meta-analyses in ecology and evolutionary biology using shared code and data.PloS one · 2024Article
- Empirical evidence of widespread exaggeration bias and selective reporting in ecology.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Importance of timely metadata curation to the global surveillance of genetic diversity.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2023Article
- Assessing the publishing priorities and preferences among STEM researchers at a large R1 institution.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Publication bias impacts on effect size, statistical power, and magnitude (Type M) and sign (Type S) errors in ecology and evolutionary biology.BMC biology · 2023Article
- MoveApps: a serverless no-code analysis platform for animal tracking data.Movement ecology · 2022Article
- Low statistical power and overestimated anthropogenic impacts, exacerbated by publication bias, dominate field studies in global change biology.Global change biology · 2022Article
- The statistics wars and intellectual conflicts of interest.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade.Ecology letters · 2022Article
- The impact of variable predation risk on stress in snowshoe hares over the cycle in North America's boreal forest: adjusting to change.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Biases in ecological research: attitudes of scientists and ways of control.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Fiona FidlerAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Yung En CheeAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Bonnie C WintleAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Mark A BurgmanAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Michael A McCarthyAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Ascelin GordonAssociate Professor Fiona Fidler (fidlerfm@unimelb.edu.au) holds a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (History and Philosophy of Science Discipline) at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Fiona is interested in how scientists and experts make decisions. Bonnie C. Wintle is a postdoctoral fellow and Mark Burgman and Michael McCarthy are professors in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; they are interested in a broad range of topics related to environmental decisionmaking. Bonnie Wintle is now a research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. Yung En Chee is a senior research fellow in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Yung applies ecological and decision-analytic theory and models to conservation problems. Ascelin Gordon is a senior research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia; Ascelin is broadly interested in modeling approaches for understanding the impacts of environmental policies. FF, YC, BW, MB and MM were involved in discussion group about reproducibility and type 1 errors in ecology in 2014, which helped develop the outline for this article. AG and FF independently discussed the application of open science initiatives in ecology. FF wrote the first draft; YC wrote sections on data and code sharing with substantial input from AG. BW, MB, and MM made edits throughout.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent replication projects in other disciplines have uncovered disturbingly low levels of reproducibility, suggesting that those research literatures may contain unverifiable claims. The conditions contributing to irreproducibility in other disciplines are also present in ecology. These include a large discrepancy between the proportion of "positive" or "significant" results and the average statistical power of empirical research, incomplete reporting of sampling stopping rules and results, journal policies that discourage replication studies, and a prevailing publish-or-perish research culture that encourages questionable research practices. We argue that these conditions constitute sufficient reason to systematically evaluate the reproducibility of the evidence base in ecology and evolution. In some cases, the direct replication of ecological research is difficult because of strong temporal and spatial dependencies, so here, we propose metaresearch projects that will provide proxy measures of reproducibility.
Indexed as
metaresearchopen sciencepublication biasreproducibilitytransparency
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What OpenQuestion holds
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LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390
Registered trials
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.