Arthur George Tansley was a botanist and ecologist who was published into the Journal of Ecology in 1917. His paper, On Competition Between Galium Saxatile L. (G. Hercynicum Weig.) and Galium Sylvestre Poll. (G. Asperum Schreb.) On Different Types of Soil, discussed four types of soils and the competition that occurs between two plant species in their preferred soil. The primary research started by E. Hume and later continued by A. Marsh was the basis of this article, thereby making Tansley’s paper a secondary source.
Although this is a secondary journal article and therefore does not require sections such as materials and methods, or results, his paper left out key statistical and quantitative analyses. Statistical analyses such as Chi-square tests, binomial tests, t-tests, etc., are critical in modern experiments to conclude whether or not you accept or reject your hypothesis, and whether or not your data is considered significant. Furthermore, stating the null and alternative hypothesis for this experiment is a key element that is present in scientific articles today.
Also missing from this paper is an array of figures or tables that would have better represented the data collected and allowed Tansley to be able to reference them in the discussion. For instance, a figure (such as a bar graph) illustrating the growth of each plant species on the various soil types would have clearly and concisely highlighted the competition that was being observed.
Overall, I believe that Tansley’s paper demonstrates how far scientific literature has come, and how comprehensive testing makes experimental conclusions much more substantial.
Reference:
Tansley, A. G. (1917). On Competition Between Galium Saxatile L. (G. Hercynicum Weig.) and Galium Sylvestre Poll. (G. Asperum Schreb.) On Different Types of Soil. Journal of Ecology, 5(3/4), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.2307/2255655
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 