A principal focus of ecological research should be to learn the influence of scale on ecological processes and to determine appropriate spatial and temporal scales with which to study the problem of interest. To date, little attention has been given to scale issues in grouse research, and we conclude that this is a major weakness. The problem affects not only our interpretations of individual events and processes, but also our interpretation of relative effects of various factors and processes, which likely act at different scales. Investigators should provide evidence for the choices made for the scale of resolution/grain used in field studies and analyses, and should conduct analyses at multiple scales. The current research problem also hinders the quality of forecasts that can be made about management interventions. To help illustrate the effect that scale of resolution can have upon research results, we provide two examples on grouse, one temporal and the other spatial.