- Title
- The Australian digital online farm trials database increases the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in grains crop research
- Creator
- Walters, Judi; Light, Kate
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Journal article; Review
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/178570
- Identifier
- vital:15454
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1071/CP20534
- Identifier
- ISBN:1836-0947 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Synthesis and analysis of past cropping research can provide valuable information to direct future decisions around crop management. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are considered gold standards in the synthesis and analysis of scientific research because they distil large amounts of information about complex issues, provide a summary of knowledge to date, and identify knowledge gaps. However, several issues concerning the methodologies employed to conduct systematic reviews have been identified; among them is the risk of publication bias when a review relies too heavily on 'white' literature from published academic sources and in so doing fails identify relevant 'grey' literature. Grey literature is inherently difficult to identify and collect, but forms a large portion of information available in many fields including agricultural-based research within Australia. The Online Farm Trials (OFT) database is a digital database of crop research field trial data from across Australia that has the potential for use as a discipline-specific source of grey literature to inform systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Using a case study approach to investigate the amount of information available on time of sowing (sowing date) on crop yield across Australia, we demonstrate that the OFT database provides easy access to transparent and reproducible search results similar to other commonly used academic databases. © 2021 Journal Compilation
- Publisher
- CSIRO
- Relation
- Crop and Pasture Science Vol. 72, no. 10 (2021), p. 789-800
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright @ CSIRO 2021
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- 05 Environmental Sciences; 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences; Agriculture; Australia; Crop research; Cropping; Database; FAIR principles; Findable; Grains; Literature review; Meta-analysis; Metadata; OFT; Sowing date; Systematic review; Time of sowing
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Funder
- Online Farm Trials (OFT) is an open digital database containing information and results from grain crop research trials of over 15000 ‘crop-type ⨯ location (site) ⨯ year combinations’ (called ‘Trial Projects’) across Australia. It was developed in late 2013 to address the need for greater dissemination and accessibility of on-farm research trials (Walters et al. 2018). OFT is funded by the GRDC but includes research trials conducted by a large and diverse range of contributors including farming and grower groups (e.g. Birchip Cropping Group, Southern Farming Systems, Mallee Sustainable Farming, Northern Grower Alliance), state government departments (e.g. Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Department of Agriculture and Food WA, NSW Department of Primary Industries), research organisations, programs and alliances (e.g. South Australian Research and Development Institute, Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Research Foundation, Southern Pulse Agronomy, Soils West), agricultural contractors and service providers (e.g. Agrarain Management, Planfarm, agVivo) and universities (e.g. The University of Adelaide, Federation University).
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