Reproducibility

Definition

Reproducibility, replicability and repeatability are related terms used differently by different research communities to refer alternately to: a) the ability to re-run analyses or computational methods and get consistent or identical results (sometimes called computational reproducibility) or b) the ability to re-run a study's methodology and get consistent results from running a new study by following procedures as closely as possible (sometimes called experimental replicability). In general, reproducibility, replicability and repeatability can be assumed to mean something relating to re-running an experiment and getting consistent or identical results.

Examples

An article in Nature on the inability to reproduce a high volume of psychology papers, sometimes prompting a challenge called the Reproducibility Crisis:  https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18248

Similar Terms

Replicability
Repeatability
Tools

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a platform for collaboration and data sharing and is designed to facilitate reproducibility.

Further Resources

An article in Science discussing definitions of Reproducibility:  https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf5027?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed 

A National Academies of Science whitepaper on issues around defining reproducibility and replicability, as well as in-depth discussions of different ways to conduct reproducibility/replicability studies (link is to Executive Summary):  https://www.nap.edu/read/25303/chapter/2 

 

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