Josefsson, Jonas and Hiron, Matthew and Arlt, Debora and Auffret, Alistair and Berg, Åke and Chevalier, Mathieu and Glimskär, Anders and Hartman, Göran and Kacergyte, Ineta and Klein, Julian and Knape, Jonas and Laugen, Ane and Low, Matthew and Paquet, Matthieu and Pasanen Mortensen, Marianne and Rosin, Zuzanna and Rosin, Zuzanna M. and Rubene, Diana and Zmihorski, Michal and Pärt, Tomas
(2020).
Improving scientific rigour in conservation evaluations and a plea deal for transparency on potential biases.
Conservation Letters. 13
, e12726
[Article Review/Survey]
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Abstract
The delivery of rigorous and unbiased evidence on the effects of interventions lay at the heart of the scientific method. Here we examine scientific papers evaluating agri-environment schemes, the principal instrument to mitigate farmland biodiversity declines worldwide. Despite previous warnings about rudimentary study designs in this field, we found that the majority of studies published between 2008 and 2017 still lack robust study designs to strictly evaluate intervention effects. Potential sources of bias that arise from the correlative nature are rarely mentioned, and results are still promoted by using a causal language. This lack of robust study designs likely results from poor integration of research and policy, while the erroneous use of causal language and an unwillingness to discuss bias may stem from publication pressures. We conclude that scientific reporting and discussion of study limitations in intervention research must improve and propose some practices toward this goal.
| Authors/Creators: | Josefsson, Jonas and Hiron, Matthew and Arlt, Debora and Auffret, Alistair and Berg, Åke and Chevalier, Mathieu and Glimskär, Anders and Hartman, Göran and Kacergyte, Ineta and Klein, Julian and Knape, Jonas and Laugen, Ane and Low, Matthew and Paquet, Matthieu and Pasanen Mortensen, Marianne and Rosin, Zuzanna and Rosin, Zuzanna M. and Rubene, Diana and Zmihorski, Michal and Pärt, Tomas | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title: | Improving scientific rigour in conservation evaluations and a plea deal for transparency on potential biases | ||||||
| Series Name/Journal: | Conservation Letters | ||||||
| Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
| Volume: | 13 | ||||||
| Article number: | e12726 | ||||||
| Number of Pages: | 8 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1755-263X | ||||||
| Language: | English | ||||||
| Publication Type: | Article Review/Survey | ||||||
| Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
| Version: | Published version | ||||||
| Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
| Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
| Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology | ||||||
| Keywords: | agri-environment scheme, before after control impact, biodiversity | causal language, evaluation of conservation interventions, meta-analysis, organic farming, study design, systematic review | ||||||
| URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-106484 | ||||||
| Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-106484 | ||||||
| Additional ID: |
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| ID Code: | 17976 | ||||||
| Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||||
| Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology (NL, NJ) > Swedish Biodiversity Centre (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Crop Production Ecology | ||||||
| Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
| Deposited On: | 28 Oct 2020 10:23 | ||||||
| Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:25 |
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