The Decision support tool is a self-help exercise that can be filled in on line or alternatively each of the iterative loops can be downloaded as a Word document and filled in.
It is envisaged that the completed documents can be discussed with supervisors, within lab group meetings or with mentors. The documents can then be further amended, revised and the initial experimental designs refined in preparation for the next strand of the Best Practice Guide – MEDDLE – Multiple Environmental Driver Design Lab for Experiments.
The decision support tool is not designed to be used as a means to seek feedback from the SCOR WG149. The WG members instead have provided a publication on approaches to experimental design, a handbook (both available to download on the front page of the www site), and a series of video tutorials. Each of these features will help you fill out the sections of the Decision Support Tool.
Each step of the guide takes you through a different stage of the planning process: (1) defining the research question, (2) identifying responses, drivers and the design and (3) finalising the design.
This Guide can be completed by downloading Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 (word document templates) or by using the three buttons below.