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Ecosystem service research is high on the policy agenda. Strategies to synthesize individual success stories and derive generalized results to provide guidance for policymakers and stakeholder is central to many science-policy initiatives, such as Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. However, generalization requires the documentation of basic information on methods and results of case studies, which might not be present throughout all case studies. We used a quantitative review based on a random sample of studies published in the ISI Web of Knowledge between 1996 and 2016 to identify blind spots in ecosystem service research that might hinder the generalization. We structured our analysis along critical questions about five facets that characterize the holistic ideal of ecosystem services research: (i) social …