Investigators should provide theoretical rationale for the selection of the environmental factor under study. Why is there reason to believe this aspect of the environment will have a moderating effect? Does the investigator believe this is an environmental factor with a time-limited or enduring effect? Justification for the scale of measurement of the environment should be provided, as well as reporting of results on biologically defensible transformations of the independent and dependent variables. The environmental measure should reflect the “state of the art” method for measuring the particular feature of the environment. If it does not, justification for why this particular measure should be relevant/adequate should be included, as well as traditional supportive psychometric information.
