Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34253609›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021

On design-based empirical research and its interpretation and ethics in sustainability science.

Christopher B Barrett

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Synthesizing evidence in sustainability science through harmonized experiments: Community monitoring in common pool resources.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Christopher B BarrettCharles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 cbb2@cornell.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-9139-2721

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Generating credible answers to key policy questions is crucial but difficult in most coupled human and natural systems because complex feedback mechanisms can confound identification of the causal mechanisms behind observed phenomena. By using explicit research designs intended to isolate the causal effects of specific interventions on community monitoring of common property resources, and on the well-being of those resources and their human neighbors, the papers in this Special Feature offer an important advance in empirical sustainability science research. Like earlier advances in my own field of development economics, however, they suffer some avoidable interpretive and ethical errors. This essay celebrates the powerful potential of design-based sustainability science studies, much of it admirably reflected in this set of papers, while simultaneously flagging opportunities to improve future work in this tradition.

Indexed as

Conservation of Natural ResourcesData Interpretation, StatisticalEmpirical ResearchEnvironmental PolicyHumansMediation AnalysisRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicResearch Designcausal inferencepolicyrandomized controlled trialssustainable development

Identifiers

PMID34253609
PMCPMC8307848

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.