School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2022 Dec;6(12):1818-1828. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01891-z. Epub 2022 Nov 3.
Synthesis of primary ecological data is often assumed to achieve a notion of 'generality', through the quantification of overall effect sizes and consistency among studies, and has become a dominant research approach in ecology. Unfortunately, ecologists rarely define either the generality of their findings, their estimand (the target of estimation) or the population of interest. Given that generality is fundamental to science, and the urgent need for scientific understanding to curb global scale ecological breakdown, loose usage of the term 'generality' is problematic. In other disciplines, generality is defined as comprising both generalizability-extending an inference about an estimand from the sample to the population-and transferability-the validity of estimand predictions in a different sampling unit or population. We review current practice in ecological synthesis and demonstrate that, when researchers fail to define the assumptions underpinning generalizations and transfers of effect sizes, generality often misses its target. We provide guidance for communicating nuanced inferences and maximizing the impact of syntheses both within and beyond academia. We propose pathways to generality applicable to ecological syntheses, including the development of quantitative and qualitative criteria with which to license the transfer of estimands from both primary and synthetic studies.
主要生态数据的综合通常被认为通过量化总体效应大小和研究之间的一致性来实现“普遍性”，并已成为生态学中的主要研究方法。不幸的是，生态学家很少定义他们的发现的普遍性、他们的估计量（估计的目标）或感兴趣的总体。鉴于普遍性是科学的基础，并且迫切需要科学理解来遏制全球规模的生态崩溃，因此随意使用“普遍性”一词是有问题的。在其他学科中，普遍性被定义为包括可推广性——从样本推断到总体的估计量的推广性——和可转移性——在不同的抽样单位或总体中估计量预测的有效性。我们回顾了生态综合的当前实践，并表明，当研究人员未能定义推广和转移效应大小的假设时，普遍性往往会偏离目标。我们为在学术界内外交流细微的推断和最大限度地发挥综合的影响提供了指导。我们提出了适用于生态综合的一般性途径，包括制定定量和定性标准，以便从原始研究和综合研究中授权转移估计量。
