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How (not) to measure replication

Fletcher, Samuel C. (2021) How (not) to measure replication. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11 (57). pp. 1-27. ISSN 1879-4912

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Abstract

The replicability crisis refers to the apparent failures to replicate both important and typical positive experimental claims in psychological science and biomedicine, failures which have gained increasing attention in the past decade. In order to provide evidence that there is a replicability crisis in the first place, scientists have developed various measures of replication that help quantify or "count" whether one study replicates another. In this nontechnical essay, I critically examine five types of replication measures used in the landmark article "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science" (OSC 2015) based on the following techniques: subjective assessment, null hypothesis significance testing, comparing effect sizes, comparing the original effect size with the replication confidence interval, and meta-analysis. The first four, I argue, remain unsatisfactory for a variety of conceptual or formal reasons, even taking into account various improvements. By contrast, at least one version of the meta-analytic measure does not suffer from these problems. It differs from the others in rejecting dichotomous conclusions, the assumption that one study replicates another or not simpliciter. I defend it from other recent criticisms, concluding however that it is not a panacea for all the multifarious problems that the crisis has highlighted.


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Fletcher, Samuel C.scfletch@umn.edu0000-0002-9061-8976
Keywords: Replicability crisis, Reproducability crisis, Null hypothesis significance testing, Effect size, Confidence interval Meta-analysis
Subjects: General Issues > Data
General Issues > Evidence
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Prof. Samuel C. Fletcher
Date Deposited: 17 Jun 2021 19:28
Last Modified: 17 Jun 2021 19:28
Item ID: 19195
Journal or Publication Title: European Journal for Philosophy of Science
Publisher: Springer
Official URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13194...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1007/s13194-021-00377-2
Subjects: General Issues > Data
General Issues > Evidence
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Date: 3 June 2021
Page Range: pp. 1-27
Volume: 11
Number: 57
ISSN: 1879-4912
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19195

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