A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Challenging the value of a pseudoreplicated study: A comment to Liu et al. (2024)
Authors: Kozlov, Mikhail V.
Publisher: ELSEVIER
Publishing place: AMSTERDAM
Publication year: 2024
Journal: South African Journal of Botany
Journal name in source: SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
Journal acronym: S AFR J BOT
Volume: 174
First page : 180
Last page: 182
Number of pages: 3
ISSN: 0254-6299
eISSN: 1727-9321
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2024.09.019
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2024.09.019
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/458221217
The paper by Liu et al. (2024) presents measurements of herbivory and six plant traits considered potential antiherbivore defences in seven plant species across two study plots: one mined and one adjacent unmined plot. I argue that this experimental design is inadequate for testing the authors' hypothesis that differences in herbivory and plant traits between these two plots are due to pollution impact, as the study lacks replication of pollution levels. This issue, which could have been easily addressed when designing the study, reflects insufficient attention to experimental design and seriously compromises the validity of the research findings. I briefly reiterate what pseudoreplication is and which fundamental principle of statistical inference it violates. (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of SAAB. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
Funding information in the publication:
Research Council of Finland (grant 362731)
