Hüffmeier Joachim, Kühner Clara
Institute of Psychology, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Oct 2;11(10):240850. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240850. eCollection 2024 Oct.
Independent replications are very rare in the behavioural and social sciences. This is problematic because they can help to detect 'false positives' in published research and, in turn, contribute to scientific self-correction. The lack of replication studies is, among other factors, due to a rather passive editorial approach concerning replications by many journals, which does not encourage and may sometimes even actively discourage submission of replications. In this Perspective article, we advocate for a more proactive editorial approach concerning replications and suggest introducing journal-based as a new publication track. We argue that such replication marketplaces could solve the long-standing problem of lacking independent replications. To establish these marketplaces, a designated part of a journal's editorial board identifies the most relevant new findings reported within the journal's pages and publicly offers them for replication. This public offering could be combined with small grants for authors to support these replications. Authors then compete for the first accepted registered report to conduct the related replications and can thus be sure that their replication will be published independent of the later findings. Replication marketplaces would not only increase the prevalence of independent replications but also help science to become more self-correcting.
在行为科学和社会科学领域,独立重复研究极为罕见。这存在问题,因为它们有助于发现已发表研究中的“假阳性”结果,进而推动科学的自我修正。缺乏重复研究,诸多因素中,部分原因在于许多期刊对重复研究采取相当消极的编辑态度,既不鼓励,有时甚至还会积极劝阻重复研究的投稿。在这篇观点文章中,我们倡导对重复研究采取更积极主动的编辑方针,并建议引入基于期刊的重复研究作为一种新的出版途径。我们认为,这样的重复研究市场可以解决长期存在的缺乏独立重复研究的问题。为建立这些市场,期刊编辑委员会的指定部分确定该期刊内报道的最相关新发现,并公开提供这些发现以供重复研究。这种公开征集可以与为作者提供小额资助相结合,以支持这些重复研究。然后,作者们竞争首个被接受的注册报告来进行相关重复研究,这样就能确保他们的重复研究无论后续结果如何都能发表。重复研究市场不仅会提高独立重复研究的普遍性,还会有助于科学变得更具自我修正能力。