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Figure 9.1
Histograms showing the proportion of the respective “Methods” sections in length
of recently published technical papers in wildlife biology. White bars are from the
Chinese journal
Acta Theriologica Sinica
during 2004-5; black bars are from
Ursus
during 2005.
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
< 5
5-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
>25
Percent Consisting of Methods
up more than 20 percent of the overall length in ten of the twenty-three papers in
Ursus
,
but none of the
Acta
papers (see Figure 9.1). On average, Methods sections in
Ursus
were
roughly twice as long (and presumably, twice as detailed) as those in
Acta
.
I do not mean to make too much of this: the sample is small, and there is more to the quality
of a Methods section than its length. That said, this little exercise serves to quantify, if only
approximately, the much greater emphasis placed on detailing methodology among wildlife
scientists publishing in a Western setting than among those publishing in China. Scientists
should view disclosure of methods, including faults, limitations, and possible biases, as critical
to our work being seen as science, so that the readers can judge for themselves how persuaded
they are of the authors' results and conclusions. We expect our readers to be skeptical about
our work, and hope that we sufficiently anticipate their skepticism in our own treatment of it.
But the brevity of Methods sections in Chinese wildlife research papers makes me wonder
if taking an appropriately skeptical attitude toward new work isn't viewed within Chinese
academia as being discourteous rather than as simply being objective.
The message implied by such uninformative Methods sections is, “Why need you
know more about what I did? I'm the scientist; I'm the one writing about this study; I
know what I'm doing. Your job is to read and learn, not to question.” What ought to make
scientists authorities is their insistence on methodological rigor, their skepticism of even
their own findings, and their caution in making conclusions. Within the professional
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