Exaggerated effects in ecology

May 22, 2023

Metascience

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023)Cite this article

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A study of over 18,000 effect sizes from more than 350 published studies in ecology finds clear evidence of selective reporting and exaggeration of effect sizes.

Growing concerns about the reliability of published research have led scientists in a variety of disciplines to direct their scientific lenses onto science itself. This research on research, known as ‘meta-science’, has produced evidence that the published literature is often plagued by biased and unreliable results1,2,3. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Kimmel and colleagues4 make an important contribution to the rapidly growing body of evidence that ecologists often conduct underpowered studies and engage in selective reporting and, in so doing, exaggerate the size of effects in the published literature. Their conclusions — based on 18,917 effect sizes from 354 published empirical ecology studies in the journals Ecology, Ecology Letters, Journal of Ecology, Science and Nature — are consistent with conclusions from two other recent meta-science studies based on different data and methodologies5,6.

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Department of Biology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA

Timothy H. Parker

Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Yefeng Yang

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Correspondence to Timothy H. Parker or Yefeng Yang.

T.H.P. is a co-founder and an elected member of the board of directors of SORTEE. Y.Y. declares no competing interests.

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Parker, T.H., Yang, Y. Exaggerated effects in ecology. Nat Ecol Evol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02156-z

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Published: 03 August 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02156-z

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