IDEAcology: An interface to streamline and facilitate efficient, rigorous expert elicitation in ecology

Here, we demonstrate how IDEAcology aids in preparing for and implementing a structured expert elicitation using the IDEA protocol, an iterative quantitative framework. Expert judgement is used to inform decision-making on environmental assessment management when imminent decisions are required, data absent or uninformative. Structured protocols can help improve final judgements derived from experts, but they also be administratively heavy time-consuming, requiring manual collation of experts' estimates rationales, construction dissemination summary plots discussion collating post-discussion. These challenges highlight need centralised portal that enables synchronous access by all contributors, real-time facilitation discussion, whether person online, streamlined management. To meet this need, developed interface (www.ideacology.com) support collation, summary, interactions ultimately deployment protocol. The designed central scientists practitioners easily implement projects, while facilitating providing reliable efficient way managers design run elicitation, experts input, visualise cross-examine estimates. key advantages provides include easy-to-use with single platform, reducing logistic difficulties, transparent improving accuracy estimates, enabling fast reporting analysis-ready outputs lastly, flexibility types questions accommodated interface.