¿Plantear o no plantear hipótesis? Sugerencias para estudiantes, directores y revisores

Abstract

A key goal of ecology as a science is to determine patterns in nature and infer their possible causes. Despite the importance and complementarity of descriptive and deductive approaches, it is common for directors, reviewers and funding agencies to compulsorily require the formulation of hypotheses in research projects. Given that advances in ecology are largely due to the iterative process of description (which does not require the formulation of hypotheses) and deduction, it is necessary to defend the diversity of approaches in order to simplify the elaboration and revision processes of projects, and to discover, understand and better manage natural systems. In this essay, arguments are developed both supporting the non-inclusion of hypotheses in descriptive or pure applied studies when they are not adequately justified, as well as in favor of transforming descriptive studies into deductive ones when the inclusion of hypotheses is feasible, does not obscure the original objective of the project and provides originality, objectivity and generality. Finally, suggestions are provided for authors, directors and reviewers to adequately justify their opinions, avoid prejudgments in the case of good descriptive projects, and make constructive and justified suggestions when the inclusion of hypotheses does not mislead the original objective of the work. are feasible to test, and their inclusion provides added value.