From rivals to partners: adversarial collaboration in ecology and evolution

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Scientific controversies are common in ecology and evolutionary biology.
• These disputes can sometimes impede scientific progress when rivals focus on disproving each other.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and advocate for the adversarial collaboration approach in ecology and evolutionary biology.
• To provide a framework for utilizing disagreements constructively to advance scientific understanding.

Main Methods:

• Describing the core principles and logic of adversarial collaboration.
• Identifying and analyzing potential obstacles to adopting this approach in relevant scientific fields.

Main Results:

• The study outlines how adversarial collaboration can be implemented to manage scientific disagreements.
• Strategies for overcoming challenges associated with cooperative rivalry are presented.

Conclusions:

• Adversarial collaboration offers a promising method to align scientific controversies with the collective pursuit of empirical truth.
• This approach encourages researchers to work together to resolve disputes and enhance scientific advancement.