Feldman Marcus W, Odling-Smee John, Laland Kevin N
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
J Genet. 2017 Jul;96(3):505-508. doi: 10.1007/s12041-017-0797-4.
Gupta et al., in their article in this issue ('Niche construction in evolutionary theory: the construction of an academic niche?'. doi:10.1007/s12041-017-0787-6), lament 'serious problems with the way science is being done' and suggest that 'niche construction theory exemplifies this state of affairs.' However, their aggressively confrontational but superficial critique of niche construction theory (NCT) only contributes to these problems by attacking claims that NCT does not make. This is unfortunate, as their poor scholarship has done a disservice to the evolutionary biology community through propagating misinformation.We correct Gupta et al.'s misunderstandings, stressing that NCT does not suggest that the fact that organisms engage in niche construction is neglected, nor does it make strong claims on the basis of its formal theory. Moreover, the treatment of niche construction as an evolutionary process has been highly productive, and is both theoretically and empirically well-validated.We end by reflecting on the potentially deleterious implications of their publication for evolutionary science.
古普塔等人在本期发表的文章《进化理论中的生态位构建：学术生态位的构建？》（doi:10.1007/s12041-017-0787-6）中，哀叹“科学研究方式存在严重问题”，并表示“生态位构建理论就是这种情况的例证”。然而，他们对生态位构建理论（NCT）激进且具有对抗性但却肤浅的批评，只是通过攻击NCT并未提出的主张，从而加剧了这些问题。这很不幸，因为他们糟糕的学术研究通过传播错误信息，对进化生物学界造成了损害。我们纠正古普塔等人的误解，强调NCT并未表明生物进行生态位构建这一事实被忽视，也没有基于其形式理论提出强硬主张。此外，将生态位构建视为一个进化过程已经卓有成效，并且在理论和实证上都得到了充分验证。我们最后反思他们的文章发表对进化科学可能产生的有害影响。
