Data and code from: Coordinated distributed experiments in ecology do not consistently reduce heterogeneity in effect size

Ecological meta-analyses usually exhibit high relative heterogeneity of effect size: most among-study variation in effect size represents true variation in mean effect size, rather than sampling error. This heterogeneity arises from both methodological and ecological sources. Methodological heterogeneity is a nuisance that complicates the interpretation of data syntheses. One way to reduce methodological heterogeneity is via coordinated distributed experiments, in which investigators conduct the same experiment at different sites, using the same methods. We tested whether coordinated distributed experiments in ecology exhibit a) low heterogeneity in effect size, and b) lower heterogeneity than meta-analyses, using data on 17 effects from eight coordinated distributed experiments, and 406 meta-analyses. Consistent with our expectations, among-site heterogeneity typically comprised <50% of the variance in effect size in distributed experiments. In contrast, heterogeneity within and amo..., , , # Coordinated distributed experiments in ecology do not consistently reduce heterogeneity in effect size

Included here is a data file for a distributed experiment, and code which analyses the heterogeneity of many coordinated distributed experiments and meta-analyses. The R code file reproduces the results of this study, called meta-analyses vs distd expts - R code for sharing v 2.R.

## ## Description of the data and file structure

Data File:

rousk et al 2013 table 3 data - INCREASE.csv: data from the INCREASE distributed experiment by Rousk et al. (2013)

All other data used in code is automatically sourced from URLs, but relevant variables are still described below.

**Other variables in datasets were not used in our analysis, and so are not explained in this README file.** Cells with missing data have \"NA\" values.

Variables used in code:

Costello & Fox variables: 

meta.analysis.id: Unique ID number for each meta-analysis

eff.size: Effect size

var. eff.size: Variance in e...