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Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution

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 l...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fidler, Fiona, Chee, Yung En, Wintle, Bonnie C., Burgman, Mark A., McCarthy, Michael A., Gordon, Ascelin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5384162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28596617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw159
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author Fidler, Fiona
Chee, Yung En
Wintle, Bonnie C.
Burgman, Mark A.
McCarthy, Michael A.
Gordon, Ascelin
author_facet Fidler, Fiona
Chee, Yung En
Wintle, Bonnie C.
Burgman, Mark A.
McCarthy, Michael A.
Gordon, Ascelin
author_sort Fidler, Fiona
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-53841622017-06-08 Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution Fidler, Fiona Chee, Yung En Wintle, Bonnie C. Burgman, Mark A. McCarthy, Michael A. Gordon, Ascelin Bioscience Forum 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. Oxford University Press 2017-03-01 2017-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC5384162/ /pubmed/28596617 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw159 Text en © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Forum
Fidler, Fiona
Chee, Yung En
Wintle, Bonnie C.
Burgman, Mark A.
McCarthy, Michael A.
Gordon, Ascelin
Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title_full Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title_fullStr Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title_full_unstemmed Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title_short Metaresearch for Evaluating Reproducibility in Ecology and Evolution
title_sort metaresearch for evaluating reproducibility in ecology and evolution
topic Forum
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5384162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28596617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw159
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