Causal Criteria Analysis is a systematic approach and software program specially developed by eWater CRC for examining evidence for causality between environmental stressors, management interventions and environmental outcomes.

The Causal Criteria approach and software helps overcome a situation that often confronts scientists and managers, i.e. where the information from the various sources provides conflicting results or advice.

With the Causal Criteria course, we aim that you will:

• Gain a practical understanding of the Causal Criteria approach for evaluating causality in environmental science.
• Use it to evaluate the quality of scientific literature evidence in terms of the study design attributes and various causal criteria.
• Learn to use the Causal Criteria method and software program to provide confidence when inferring a cause and effect association.

Outline

Causal Criteria Analysis is a transparent, consistent, and defensibly logical framework with which you can critically evaluate all available information to strengthen your ability to draw inferences. It helps you answer these types of questions:

• How do we know when we have reviewed enough literature or have enough support?
• Is it valid to stop searching the literature once we have found one, or a few, references that support our argument?
• If we had looked further, would we have found other scientific papers that didn't support the argument?
• How do we resolve the possibly conflicting evidence from the literature related to the questions being asked?
• How can we determine the strength of this evidence?

With the Causal Criteria framework you review causal evidence and evaluate it in a standardised and overt fashion, while focusing on the quality of the studies reviewed. The software program facilitates this systematic approach by guiding you through the framework and helping you to evaluate the strength of support for the hypothesis of interest. This approach to reviewing the literature can reduce an individual’s bias and subjectivity, and can provide an indication of whether there is sufficient evidence to infer a causal association.

Delivery - online

The Causal Criteria course is delivered by qualified educators with expertise in the content, via an interactive website. All the course materials and resources are available on-line.

Cost $1,980 including GST.

For more information

Sue Nichols, Phone +61 2 6201 5408,

Richard Norris, Phone +61 2 6201 2543.