What is it about?
The pragmatic theory of a group describes all the knowledge they use to learn about their phenomenon, but it's hard to pin down since it's always evolving. Our study proposes a method for synthesizing pragmatic theories and presents a case study on ecological succession to demonstrate it in action.
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Why is it important?
The pragmatic view of theory structure is ideal for capturing how biology generates knowledge in an era of abundant information. This approach acknowledges that science is a social endeavor and depends on swift exchange of knowledge across society. Our proposed method creates synthetic snapshots of this elusive entity, the pragmatic theory, allowing us to identify model trends, knowledge gaps, subcommunities, and guide future directions. In short, the method yields a theoretical map for more efficient knowledge generation.
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This page is a summary of: A pragmatic approach for producing theoretical syntheses in ecology, PLoS ONE, December 2021, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261173.
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