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When should researchers cite study differences in response to a failure to replicate?

Colaço, David and Bickle, John and Walters, Bradley (2022) When should researchers cite study differences in response to a failure to replicate? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Scientists often respond to failures to replicate by citing differences between the experimental components of an original study and those of its attempted replication. In this paper, we investigate these purported mismatch explanations. We assess a body of failures to replicate in neuroscience studies on spinal cord injury. We argue that a defensible mismatch explanation is one where (1) a mismatch of components is a difference maker for a mismatch of outcomes, and (2) the components are relevantly different in the follow-up study, given the scope of the original study. With this account, we argue that not all differences between studies are meaningful, even if they are difference makers. As our examples show, focusing only on these differences results in disregarding the representativeness of the original experiment’s components and the scope of its outcomes, undercutting other epistemic aims, such as translation, in the process.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Colaço, David
Bickle, John
Walters, Bradley
Keywords: replication; translation; model organisms; experiment; neuroscience
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Neuroscience
Depositing User: Dr. David Colaço
Date Deposited: 15 Aug 2022 03:39
Last Modified: 15 Aug 2022 03:39
Item ID: 21054
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Neuroscience
Date: 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21054

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