The Ten Commandments of Comparative Analysis*

Issue: 
Network News Fall 1989, Vol. 6 No. 1
Section:
Network News

Compiled by a discussion group, on improving the use of existing data sets, led by Cathy Tate (KNZ) and John Magnuson (Nm), Third Cary Conference, May 1-3, 1989. Printed by permission of Springer-Verlag, New York, Inc.

  1. Thou shalt honor the advancement of ecology
  2. Thou shalt seek great patterns wnong divergent ecosystems
  3. Thou shalt not kill creativity
  4. Thou shalt not commit adulteration of data
  5. Thou shalt not steal
  6. Thou shalt make thy data available even unto thine enemies
  7. Thou shalt not assume all ecosystems are different until you do the residual analysis
  8. Thou shalt honor probability theory whenever possible
  9. Thou shalt release thy data from bondage
  10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors’ data until they’ve had a crack at them

Tate, C.M., and C. Jones. Improving use of existing data. In comparative analyses of ecosystems: patterns, mechanism, and theories. J.J. Cole, S.E.G. Findlay and G.M. Lovett, editors. Springer-Verlag, NY. 1990.