Reply to Chitnis and Smith, Fernandes, Gibbons, and Kane: Communicating theory effectively requires more explanation, not fewer equations
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UG, United Kingdom
Mathematical theory is an indispensible part of research in ecology and evolutionary biology. Used wisely, equations can capture the essence of fundamental biological processes with greater clarity, precision, rigor, and brevity than purely verbal arguments. In our original article (1), we showed that the citation rate of articles in ecology and evolutionary biology is negatively associated not with the number of equations used—contrary to what Gibbons (2) and Chitnis and Smith (3) claim—but with how densely packed those equations are on each page. This is a crucial difference. It is not equations that are the problem; it is equations without sufficient accompanying text to explain the assumptions and implications for a broad biological audience. We do not recommend the indiscriminate removal of equations from scientific papers.
Explaining the mathematics in sufficient detail for a broad audience can, however, require considerable space. As a pragmatic solution acknowledging the constraints many journals impose on article length, we suggested that authors might move …
↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tim.fawcett{at}cantab.net.
