Journal article
Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
Nature Communications, Vol.11(1), Art. 6377
2020
Abstract
Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates. Randomised designs and controlled observational designs with pre-intervention sampling were used by just 23% of intervention studies in biodiversity conservation, and 36% of intervention studies in social science. We demonstrate, through pairwise within-study comparisons across 49 environmental datasets, that these types of designs usually give less biased estimates than simpler observational designs. We propose a model-based approach to combine study estimates that may suffer from different levels of study design bias, discuss the implications for evidence synthesis, and how to facilitate the use of more credible study designs.
Details
- Title
- Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
- Authors/Creators
- A.P. Christie (Author/Creator) - University of CambridgeD. Abecasis (Author/Creator) - University of AlgarveM. Adjeroud (Author/Creator) - Institut de Recherche pour le DéveloppementJ.C. Alonso (Author/Creator) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasT. Amano (Author/Creator) - The University of QueenslandA. Anton (Author/Creator) - University of the Basque CountryB.P. Baldigo (Author/Creator) - United States Geological SurveyR. Barrientos (Author/Creator) - Universidad Complutense de MadridJ.E. Bicknell (Author/Creator) - University of KentD.A. Buhl (Author/Creator) - United States Geological SurveyJ. Cebrian (Author/Creator) - Mississippi State UniversityR.S. Ceia (Author/Creator) - University of CoimbraL. Cibils-Martina (Author/Creator) - National University of Río CuartoS. Clarke (Author/Creator) - Memorial University of NewfoundlandJ. Claudet (Author/Creator) - Université Paris CitéM.D. Craig (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityD. Davoult (Author/Creator) - Université Paris CitéA. De Backer (Author/Creator)M.K. Donovan (Author/Creator) - University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaT.D. Eddy (Author/Creator) - Victoria University of WellingtonF.M. França (Author/Creator) - Lancaster UniversityJ.P.A. Gardner (Author/Creator) - Victoria University of WellingtonB.P. Harris (Author/Creator) - Alaska Pacific UniversityA. Huusko (Author/Creator)I.L. Jones (Author/Creator) - St. John's UniversityB.P. Kelaher (Author/Creator) - Southern Cross UniversityJ.S. Kotiaho (Author/Creator) - University of JyväskyläA. López-Baucells (Author/Creator) - Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteH.L. Major (Author/Creator) - University of New BrunswickA. Mäki-Petäys (Author/Creator) - University of OuluB. Martin (Author/Creator) - Chartered Institute of Management AccountantsC.A. Martín (Author/Creator) - Universidad Complutense de MadridP.A. Martin (Author/Creator) - University of CambridgeD. Mateos-Molina (Author/Creator) - Universidad de MurciaR.A. McConnaughey (Author/Creator) - NOAA National Marine Fisheries ServiceM. Meroni (Author/Creator)C.F.J. Meyer (Author/Creator)K. Mills (Author/Creator)M. Montefalcone (Author/Creator)N. Noreika (Author/Creator) - Estonian University of Life SciencesC. Palacín (Author/Creator) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasA. Pande (Author/Creator) - Victoria University of WellingtonC.R. Pitcher (Author/Creator)C. Ponce (Author/Creator) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasM. Rinella (Author/Creator) - Miles CollegeR. Rocha (Author/Creator) - Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteM.C. Ruiz-Delgado (Author/Creator) - Universidad Pablo de OlavideJ.J. Schmitter-Soto (Author/Creator)J.A. Shaffer (Author/Creator)S. Sharma (Author/Creator) - New York State Department of Environmental ConservationA.A. Sher (Author/Creator) - University of DenverD. Stagnol (Author/Creator) - Université Paris CitéT.R. Stanley (Author/Creator) - United States Geological SurveyK.D.E. Stokesbury (Author/Creator) - University of Massachusetts DartmouthA. Torres (Author/Creator) - Michigan State UniversityO. Tully (Author/Creator) - Memorial University of NewfoundlandT. Vehanen (Author/Creator)C. Watts (Author/Creator) - Manaaki Whenua – Landcare ResearchQ. Zhao (Author/Creator) - University of CambridgeW.J. Sutherland (Author/Creator) - University of Cambridge
- Publication Details
- Nature Communications, Vol.11(1), Art. 6377
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Identifiers
- 991005543805007891
- Copyright
- © 2020 The Authors.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
109 File views/ downloads
55 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.155 Medical Ethics
- 1.155.611 Evidence Based Medicine
- Web Of Science research areas
- Ecology
- ESI research areas
- Environment/Ecology