When acting as a past participle based should modify a noun. If there is no noun to which it can attach, one must use on the basis of.
- Incorrect: Based on these findings, we adopted a new marketing approach.
- Correct: On the basis of these findings, we developed a new marketing approach.
- Correct: We developed a new marketing approach based on these findings.
- Incorrect: Based on the growth rates of large modern reptiles such as the Galapagos tortoise and examinations of fossils of juvenile dinosaurs, scientists estimate that the largest dinosaurs probably lived to be between 100 and 200 years old.
- Correct: On the basis of growth rates of large modern reptiles such as the Galapagos tortoise and examinations of fossils of juvenile dinosaurs, scientists estimate that the largest dinosaurs probably lived to be between 100 and 200 years old.
