Trends in research approaches and gender in plant ecology dissertations over four decades

Dissertations are a foundational scientific product; they are the formative product that early-career scientists create and share original knowledge. Methodological approaches used in dissertations vary depending on the research field. In plant ecology, these approaches include observations, experiments (field or controlled-environment), literature reviews, theoretical approaches, or analyses of existing data (including ‘big data’). This dataset was created to examine how the emphasis on each of these categories has changed over time, and whether male and female authors differ in the methods employed. The dissertations used for this study were gathered from the Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global (https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal) database., The Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global Database (https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal) was used to find relevant dissertations. The website was accessed on January 4, 2022, and the following search string was used:
((SU(plant? OR vegetation OR tree OR leaf OR botan* OR flora* OR seedling* OR grass*) OR TI(plant? OR vegetation OR tree OR leaf OR botan* OR flora* OR seedling* OR grass*)) AND (SU(ecology OR ecolog* OR ecosystem? OR communit* OR conservation OR diversity OR biodiversity OR range OR trait?) OR TI(ecology OR ecolog* OR ecosystem? OR communit* OR conservation OR diversity OR biodiversity OR range OR trait?)) AND LA(en OR eng OR english)) NOT (\"water reclamation\" plant? OR \"water treatment\" plant? OR econom* OR bioengineer* OR biotechnolog* OR \"bacterial flora\")
The search results were further filtered as follows:
Manuscript type: Doctoral dissertations; Language: English
Subject: NOT (plant pathology AND genetics AND agronomy AND microbiology AND soil sciences AND zoolo..., , # Trends in methodological approaches and gender in plant ecology dissertations, 1938-2021

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h44j0zprx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h44j0zprx)

Dissertations are a foundational scientific product; they are the formative product that early-career scientists create and share original knowledge. Methodological approaches used in dissertations vary with the research field. In plant ecology, these approaches include observations, experiments (field or controlled-environment), literature reviews, theoretical approaches, or analyses of existing data (including ‘big data’). This dataset was created to examine how the emphasis on each of these categories has changed over time, and whether male and female authors differ in methods employed. The dissertations used for this study were gathered from the *Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global* ([https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal](https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal) database.

## Description of the data and file s...