PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Anne-Christine Mupepele AU - Carsten F. Dormann TI - Assessing the evidence of ecosystem services studies: a framework and its application AID - 10.1101/010140 DP - 2014 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 010140 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/10/08/010140.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/10/08/010140.full AB - Reliability of scientific findings is always important, but even more so in ecosystem service science, where results can directly lead to policy implementations. The assessment of reliability resulted in the introduction of the evidence-based concept in the medical sciences. It aims at identifying the best available information to answer the question of interest. In environmental sciences, the evidence-based concept is well developed [very few people actually use it!] in conservation, but so far no guidelines exists for ecosystem services science. To apply the evidence-based concept in practice we need a scale to rank study designs commonly used in ecosystem services science as well as an assessment of the actual quality of implementation in a specific study. Here, we define a framework for evidence-based ecosystem service science, together with a design scale and a critical-appraisal checklist. The approach is described with detailed examples and specific suggestions for different user groups.