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Explore science by method, field & evidence.

One catalogue of research methods — learn how each one works, when to use it, and what it can’t do.

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8,178 methods11 fields7 method families40 languages
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FieldHealth & Medicine716Psychology570Business & Finance410Engineering330Life Sciences263Education261Research Practice248
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Entries are compiled from published sources for reference. Verifying the accuracy and suitability of any information for your own use remains your responsibility.

© 2026 ScholarGate · A research-method reference library
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Natural Sciences236
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MethodStatistics1,836AI & ML1,661Decision Sciences932Research Methods1,354Measurement1,745Causal & Evidence532Research Practice118
122 methods in Life Sciences · MeasurementClear
Methods at the intersection of your two filters.
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food science

Accelerated Shelf-Life Testing

Accelerated Shelf-Life Testing (ASLT) uses elevated temperature and controlled storage conditions to rapidly assess product degradation and predict realistic shelf-life without waiting months. By measuring quality parameters (moisture, acidity, nutrient levels, microbial growth) at accelerated conditions and applying k

2 sources1975
veterinary science

Acoustic Telemetry

Acoustic telemetry is a remote tracking method in which small electronic transmitters attached to or implanted in animals emit unique acoustic signals detectable by underwater or terrestrial receiver networks, enabling real-time monitoring of animal movements, positions, and behavior over extended distances and times.

3 sources1960
agronomy

Agrometeorological Yield Model

An agrometeorological yield model is a quantitative framework that relates observed or forecasted weather variables — temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, humidity — to the final grain or biomass yield of a crop. Grounded in plant physiology and agricultural climatology, the approach is used worldwide in food s

2 sources1960
forestry

Allometric Biomass Equation

Allometric equations predict tree above-ground or total biomass from easily measured tree dimensions—typically diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and wood density. Grounded in biological allometry (scaling laws) and codified by Chave, Niklas, and others, allometric equations are essential tools for rapid biomass

4 sources1990
veterinary science

Animal BLUP

Animal BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Predictor) is a statistical method for estimating the genetic merit (breeding values) of livestock based on their own performance and the performance of their relatives. Developed by Charles R. Henderson in 1949 and refined continuously since, Animal BLUP accounts for pedigree relation

3 sources1949
veterinary science

Apparent Total Tract Digestibility

Apparent Total Tract Digestibility (ATTD) is a measure of the proportion of a nutrient consumed in feed that is absorbed by the animal, calculated from the difference between dietary intake and fecal excretion. Standardized since the 1970s, ATTD is essential for quantifying the bioavailability of nutrients in feedstuff

3 sources1970
ecology

Beta Diversity Partitioning

Beta diversity partitioning quantifies how species composition differs among sites, decomposing community dissimilarity into two components: species turnover (replacement of species across sites) and nestedness (loss of species from species-rich sites). Developed by Baselga (2010), this framework reveals whether sites

3 sources2010
ecology

Bioaccumulation Model

Bioaccumulation models predict how chemical contaminants accumulate in organisms from environmental exposure (water, food, sediment). Developed by Gobas and colleagues (2006), these models quantify the kinetics of chemical uptake, metabolism, and clearance. Bioaccumulation factors (BAF) and bioconcentration factors (BC

3 sources2006
forestry

Biodiversity Index in Forests

Forest biodiversity indices quantify species richness, evenness, and overall diversity in forest ecosystems. Rooted in information theory (Shannon) and statistical ecology (Simpson, Magurran), these indices compress complex multispecies data into interpretable metrics. Applied to forest inventory data, biodiversity ind

4 sources1948
forestry

Biomass Allometric Equation

Biomass allometric equations are regression models that predict tree or stand aboveground biomass from easily measurable variables such as diameter at breast height (DBH) and height. These equations embody the principle of allometry: the scaling relationship between body parts or organisms. In forestry, allometric equa

2 sources1966
veterinary science

Body Condition Scoring

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is a semi-quantitative visual and palpation assessment method used to evaluate the nutritional status and adipose tissue reserves of livestock, particularly dairy cattle, beef cattle, and small ruminants. Developed systematically in the 1980s, BCS provides a practical, non-invasive tool for

3 sources1987
horticulture

Brix Measurement

Brix measurement quantifies the dissolved solids (primarily sugars) in fruit juice using refractometry, a non-destructive optical technique. Introduced by Carl Zeiss in the 19th century and standardized by AOAC, it is the universal industry standard for assessing fruit ripeness and quality in horticulture and postharve

2 sources1874
forestry

Burn Severity (dNBR)

Burn severity is a quantitative measure of fire-induced changes in vegetation and soil, assessed using satellite-based spectral indices. The Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and its delta (dNBR) compare pre-fire and post-fire spectral reflectance in the near-infrared and shortwave-infrared bands to detect fire-caused vegeta

2 sources2006
forestry

Canopy Cover Estimation

Canopy cover, or canopy closure, is the proportion of ground area covered by tree crowns when viewed from above, typically expressed as a percentage. Formalized by Jennings and colleagues in pioneering work on tropical forest structure, canopy cover estimation employs multiple methods—from field-based ocular assessment

4 sources2000
forestry

Canopy Gap Fraction

Canopy gap fraction quantifies the proportion of sky visible through the forest canopy, expressed as a percentage. Developed to measure light availability in the understory, it is a standard metric in forest ecology for characterizing canopy structure and microhabitat conditions. This measure is essential for understan

2 sources1979
agronomy

Canopy Interception Modeling

Canopy interception modeling quantifies the fraction of rainfall captured by plant canopies and subsequently evaporated back to the atmosphere before reaching the soil. Applied across agronomy, forestry, and hydrology, it partitions gross precipitation into throughfall, stemflow, and interception loss. By linking veget

2 sources1971
agronomy

Carbon-13 Discrimination Analysis

Carbon-13 Discrimination Analysis quantifies the degree to which C3 plants preferentially fix the lighter carbon isotope (12C) over the heavier 13C during photosynthesis. The resulting discrimination value (Delta) is closely linked to the ratio of internal to ambient CO2 concentration, making it a reliable, integrative

2 sources1982
agronomy

Cation Exchange Capacity

Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a fundamental soil property that measures the soil's ability to hold and release positively charged nutrient ions (cations: K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, H⁺, Al³⁺) in forms available to plant roots. CEC reflects the amount and type of clay minerals and organic matter in the soil—compounds with

3 sources1920
forestry

Cellulose Crystallinity

Cellulose crystallinity refers to the degree of structural order in cellulose molecules: highly crystalline cellulose has organized, tightly packed chains; amorphous cellulose has disordered chains. Measured using X-ray diffraction, cellulose crystallinity influences wood strength, stiffness, and digestibility in pulpi

2 sources1959
agronomy

Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Chlorophyll fluorescence is a non-invasive optical measurement of how efficiently the photosynthetic machinery converts absorbed light into chemical energy (photosynthesis) or heat and light (fluorescence). When photosynthesis is inhibited by stress (drought, cold, salt, pests), chlorophyll fluorescence increases becau

3 sources1931
ecology

Circuitscape

Circuitscape, developed by Brad McRae (2008), applies circuit theory from electrical engineering to predict organism movement and genetic connectivity across landscapes. The method treats landscapes as electrical networks where habitat quality is resistance and organism movement is electrical current. By analogy, organ

3 sources2008
horticulture

Cold Storage Protocol

Cold storage protocol establishes optimal temperature, humidity, and duration guidelines for preserving fruit and vegetable quality during extended storage. By maintaining precise refrigeration conditions and monitoring produce condition, growers and distributors can extend shelf life from days to weeks or months, enab

2 sources1950
horticulture

Controlled Atmosphere Storage

Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage extends fruit shelf life beyond cold storage alone by actively regulating oxygen (O₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations during storage. By reducing respiration and ethylene production rates, CA storage can maintain fruit quality for months. This advanced technique is expensive b

2 sources1980
agronomy

Crop Growth Model

Crop growth models are mechanistic simulation systems designed to predict crop development, biomass accumulation, and yield under varying environmental and management conditions. DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) and APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) are the most widely used pl

3 sources1993
agronomy

Crop Growth Simulation

Crop Growth Simulation is a computational pipeline for predicting daily or seasonal crop development, biomass accumulation, and yield under varying environmental conditions. Developed by Jones and colleagues in the DSSAT framework, this method integrates agronomic knowledge with process-based modeling to enable decisio

2 sources2003
horticulture

Crop Load Management

Crop load management uses quantitative assessment of fruit number and tree vigor to optimize yields and fruit quality through selective thinning and load balancing. This method combines visual assessment of fruitlet density, calculation of target fruit number based on tree age and vigor, physical or chemical thinning,

2 sources1960
agronomy

Crop Yield Estimation

Crop Yield Estimation is an analytical and predictive pipeline for forecasting final crop yield before harvest or monitoring yield accumulation during the growing season. Developed by agronomic research centers (CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IRRI), this method combines field observations, environmental data, and statistical models

2 sources2015
forestry

Crown Fire (Van Wagner)

The Van Wagner crown fire model predicts the conditions under which surface fires will transition to active crown fires and the rate of crown fire spread. Developed by Cornelius Van Wagner in the 1970s–1990s, the model is grounded in the physics of heat transfer from the surface flame to the canopy and the rate of vert

2 sources1977
food science

D-Value and Z-Value

D-value (decimal reduction time) and Z-value characterize the thermal resistance of microorganisms in food. D-value is the time required at a specific temperature to reduce microbial population by 90% (one log unit). Z-value is the temperature change needed to reduce the D-value tenfold. Together, they enable food proc

2 sources1923
agronomy

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology is the science of dating and interpreting wood and climate from tree rings. Each annual ring records the tree's growth response to weather during that year: wide rings indicate favorable conditions (adequate water, warmth, light); narrow rings indicate stress (drought, cold, shade). By crossmatching ri

3 sources1909
forestry

Dendrochronology Method

Dendrochronology is the science of dating and analyzing tree rings to reconstruct past climatic conditions, chronologies, and tree growth patterns. Pioneered by Andrew Ellicott Douglass in the early twentieth century and formalized by Fritts and colleagues, dendrochronology enables precise dating of historical wood sam

4 sources1901
agronomy

Digital Soil Mapping

Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) is a quantitative, data-driven pipeline that predicts the spatial distribution of soil properties and classes across a landscape by statistically linking field observations to environmental covariates — terrain attributes, remote sensing imagery, climate surfaces, and geology layers. The appr

2 sources1990
ecology

Distance Sampling

Distance sampling is a statistical method for estimating population abundance from data on distances between observers and detected individuals. Developed by Buckland and colleagues (1993) and formalized in the software Distance, this approach accounts for imperfect detection: animals far from an observer are less like

3 sources1993
food science

DPPH Radical Scavenging Assay

The DPPH radical scavenging assay is a rapid, widely used spectrophotometric method for measuring the antioxidant capacity of foods, plant extracts, and purified compounds. It quantifies how effectively a sample neutralises the stable synthetic free radical DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) by measuring the resultin

2 sources1958
food science

DSC Gelatinization

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is a thermal analysis technique that measures the heat absorbed or released by a sample as temperature changes, enabling characterization of starch gelatinization—the structural transformation of starch granules when heated with water. DSC reveals the temperature at which starch

2 sources1985
ecology

eDNA Metabarcoding

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding detects and identifies species present in environmental samples (water, soil, air) by sequencing short DNA fragments released by organisms. Developed by Taberlet and colleagues (2012), this approach has revolutionized biodiversity monitoring: species can be surveyed without captur

3 sources2012
veterinary science

Electrofishing

Electrofishing is a bioelectrical sampling technique in which electric current is applied to water to stun fish temporarily, allowing their capture for identification, measurement, and return to the stream. Developed in the 1950s and refined continuously, electrofishing is the standard method for inventorying fish comm

3 sources1950
food science

Electronic Nose

An electronic nose (e-nose) is an instrumental analytical device that mimics the mammalian olfactory system to detect and identify volatile organic compounds (odors) in food products. Developed by Persaud and Dodd in 1982, e-noses use arrays of non-selective chemical sensors combined with pattern recognition algorithms

2 sources1982
veterinary science

Electroretinography

Electroretinography (ERG) is an electrophysiological technique that records the electrical activity generated by the retina in response to light stimulation. By measuring the amplitude and timing of the resulting potential, ERG provides objective assessment of retinal photoreceptor and bipolar cell function independent

3 sources1953
veterinary science

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

ELISA is a plate-based immunoassay technique that detects and quantifies proteins, antibodies, antigens, hormones, and other analytes in biological samples. Widely used in veterinary science, medicine, and food safety, it exploits the specificity of antibody–antigen binding coupled to an enzyme-driven colorimetric sign

2 sources1971
veterinary science

Equine Gait Analysis

Equine Gait Analysis is a systematic evaluation of a horse's movement patterns at walk, trot, and canter to detect lameness, asymmetry, and biomechanical dysfunction. Combining visual observation with increasingly sophisticated instrumental techniques (force plate analysis, kinematics, accelerometry), gait analysis is

3 sources1990
ecology

Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity

Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity (PD), introduced by David Faith (1992), measures the evolutionary diversity within a community by summing the branch lengths of a phylogenetic tree connecting all species. Unlike species richness, which counts species equally regardless of evolutionary relationships, PD weights species by

3 sources1992
forestry

Fire Weather Index

The Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, developed by the Canadian Forest Service, is a comprehensive weather-based fire danger rating system consisting of six component indices and an overall Fire Weather Index. It uses daily weather observations (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation) to estimate

2 sources1987
veterinary science

Focal Animal Sampling

Focal Animal Sampling (FAS) is a systematic observational method in which an observer focuses on one individual animal at a time, recording its behavior continuously or at regular intervals for a fixed period. Introduced by Jeanne Altmann in 1974, FAS provides detailed, quantitative ethograms of individual behavior, ma

3 sources1974
ecology

Food Web Topology

Food web topology analysis characterizes the structure of predator-prey interactions within ecological communities using network metrics. Pioneered by Williams and Martinez (2000) and extended by Dunne and colleagues (2002), this approach maps which species eat which and quantifies network properties (connectivity, clu

3 sources2000
forestry

Forest Fire Risk Assessment

Forest fire risk assessment quantifies the probability and potential severity of wildfire in forest ecosystems, integrating stand structure, fuel characteristics, weather patterns, and topography. Developed by Van Wagner, Rothermel, and fire science communities, fire risk models predict fire ignition likelihood, fire b

4 sources1950
forestry

Forest Vegetation Simulator

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a widely used growth and yield model system developed by the USDA Forest Service that simulates tree and stand development over multiple decades. FVS uses individual-tree growth models (not stand averages) parameterized for different forest regions, allowing realistic simulation

2 sources1990
horticulture

Fruit Color Analysis

Fruit color analysis employs spectrophotometric measurement to quantify ripeness and quality based on chromatic properties. Using the CIE L*a*b* color space, introduced in 1976, this non-destructive method objectively grades fruit maturity and predicts sensory acceptability. It is widely applied in commercial sorting l

2 sources1976
ecology

Functional Diversity

Functional diversity quantifies the range and abundance distribution of functional traits (morphology, physiology, behavior) among species in a community. Developed by Mouillot and colleagues (2008), functional diversity indices measure how different species are in their ecological roles and resource use strategies. Un

3 sources2008
food science

Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry

Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry (GC-O) combines the separation power of gas chromatography with human olfactory perception to identify which volatile compounds in a food sample contribute to its aroma. Developed by Acree and colleagues in the 1990s, GC-O allows researchers to bypass the human nose's inability to consci

2 sources1997
agronomy

Germination Kinetics Modeling

Germination Kinetics Modeling is a quantitative method used in agronomy, seed science, and crop physiology to describe, predict, and compare the speed and uniformity of seed germination under varying environmental conditions. It draws on thermal time and hydrothermal time frameworks to link temperature, water potential

2 sources1970
horticulture

Grafting Success Evaluation

Grafting success evaluation assesses the degree of vascular union formation and physiological compatibility between scion (upper) and rootstock (lower) in grafted plants. This method combines visual inspection of callus development, histological analysis, anatomical measurements, and physiological testing to predict lo

2 sources1850
horticulture

Greenhouse Climate Control

Greenhouse climate control integrates measurement, modeling, and automated actuation to maintain optimal temperature, humidity, light, and CO₂ concentrations for plant growth. Modern systems use sensors and control algorithms to respond dynamically to external weather and internal plant needs. This approach increases y

2 sources1990
food science

HACCP

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a systematic preventive approach to food safety developed in the late 1980s by Bryan and colleagues. It identifies potential biological, chemical, and physical hazards in food production processes and establishes critical control points to prevent contamination. HA

2 sources1988
veterinary science

Hemagglutination Inhibition Assay

The Hemagglutination Inhibition (HI) Assay is a classical serological test used to detect and quantify antibodies against hemagglutinating viruses — most notably influenza and Newcastle disease virus — in animal and human serum. Widely employed in veterinary diagnostics, vaccine efficacy evaluation, and epidemiological

2 sources1942
food science

HPLC

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is an analytical technique that separates, identifies, and quantifies components in a complex food sample by passing the sample through a pressurized column packed with a stationary phase. Developed by Horváth in the early 1970s, HPLC enables rapid, sensitive measurement of

2 sources1970
horticulture

Hydroponic Nutrient Solution Management

Hydroponic nutrient solution management involves formulating, monitoring, and adjusting the chemical composition of water-based growing media to deliver optimal nutrition without soil. This method combines analytical chemistry (nutrient analysis, pH, electrical conductivity) with plant physiology to diagnose deficienci

2 sources1970
ecology

Indicator Value

Indicator Value (IndVal) analysis, developed by Dufrene and Legendre (1997), identifies species that reliably indicate the presence of particular environmental conditions, habitat types, or community groups. The method quantifies the association between species and habitat, producing an indicator value that combines sp

3 sources1997
ecology

Integral Projection Model

Integral projection models (IPMs) are a class of structured population models that use continuous traits (size, age, height) to describe population dynamics. Introduced by Easterling and colleagues (2000) and developed extensively by Ellner, Rees, and collaborators, IPMs overcome limitations of age- or stage-structured

3 sources2000
veterinary science

IVF Embryo Grading

IVF Embryo Grading is a standardized morphological assessment system for evaluating the quality and viability of embryos in assisted reproductive technology. First formalized by Gardner and colleagues in 1999, it uses microscopic examination to score embryos across multiple criteria, enabling clinicians to select the m

3 sources1999