IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/i4rdps/2.html

Replication Success under Questionable Research Practices - A Simulation Study

Author

Listed:
  • Freuli, Francesca
  • Held, Leonhard
  • Heyard, Rachel

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that the reproducibility and replicability of scientific findings is threatened by researchers employing questionable research practices (QRP) in order to achieve publishable, positive and significant results. Numerous metrics have been developed to determine replication success but it has not yet been established how well those metrics perform in the presence of QRPs. This paper aims to compare the performance of different metrics quantifying replication success in the presence of four different types of QRPs: cherry picking, questionable interim analyses, questionable inclusion of covariates, and questionable subgroup analyses. Our results show that the metric based on the golden sceptical p-value does better in maintaining low values of overall type-I error rate, but often needs larger replication sample sizes, especially when severe QRPs are employed.

Suggested Citation

  • Freuli, Francesca & Held, Leonhard & Heyard, Rachel, 2022. "Replication Success under Questionable Research Practices - A Simulation Study," I4R Discussion Paper Series 2, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/265252/1/I4R-DP002.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonhard Held, 2020. "A new standard for the analysis and design of replication studies," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(2), pages 431-448, February.
    2. Dorothy Bishop, 2019. "Rein in the four horsemen of irreproducibility," Nature, Nature, vol. 568(7753), pages 435-435, April.
    3. Anne-Laure Boulesteix & Sabine Lauer & Manuel J A Eugster, 2013. "A Plea for Neutral Comparison Studies in Computational Sciences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-11, April.
    4. Wanja Wolff & Lorena Baumann & Chris Englert, 2018. "Self-reports from behind the scenes: Questionable research practices and rates of replication in ego depletion research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-11, June.
    5. Larry V. Hedges & Jacob M. Schauer, 2019. "More Than One Replication Study Is Needed for Unambiguous Tests of Replication," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 44(5), pages 543-570, October.
    6. Daniel J. Benjamin & James O. Berger & Magnus Johannesson & Brian A. Nosek & E.-J. Wagenmakers & Richard Berk & Kenneth A. Bollen & Björn Brembs & Lawrence Brown & Colin Camerer & David Cesarini & Chr, 2018. "Redefine statistical significance," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(1), pages 6-10, January.
      • Daniel Benjamin & James Berger & Magnus Johannesson & Brian Nosek & E. Wagenmakers & Richard Berk & Kenneth Bollen & Bjorn Brembs & Lawrence Brown & Colin Camerer & David Cesarini & Christopher Chambe, 2017. "Redefine Statistical Significance," Artefactual Field Experiments 00612, The Field Experiments Website.
    7. Wicherts, Jelte M. & Veldkamp, Coosje Lisabet Sterre & Augusteijn, Hilde & Bakker, Marjan & van Aert, Robbie Cornelis Maria & van Assen, Marcel A. L. M., 2016. "Degrees of freedom in planning, running, analyzing, and reporting psychological studies A checklist to avoid p-hacking," OSF Preprints umq8d, Center for Open Science.
    8. Megan L Head & Luke Holman & Rob Lanfear & Andrew T Kahn & Michael D Jennions, 2015. "The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-15, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Samuel Pawel & Frederik Aust & Leonhard Held & Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, 2024. "Power priors for replication studies," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 33(1), pages 127-154, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:metaar:s4b65_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Freuli, Francesca & Held, Leonhard & Heyard, Rachel, 2022. "Replication success under questionable research practices – a simulation study," MetaArXiv s4b65, Center for Open Science.
    3. Felix Holzmeister & Magnus Johannesson & Robert Böhm & Anna Dreber & Jürgen Huber & Michael Kirchler, 2023. "Heterogeneity in effect size estimates: Empirical evidence and practical implications," Working Papers 2023-17, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    4. Alese Wooditch & Ryan Fisher & Xiaoyun Wu & Nicole J. Johnson, 2020. "p-value Problems? An Examination of Evidential Value in Criminology," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 305-328, June.
    5. Jasper Brinkerink, 2023. "When Shooting for the Stars Becomes Aiming for Asterisks: P-Hacking in Family Business Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 304-343, March.
    6. Rinne, Sonja, 2024. "Estimating the merit-order effect using coarsened exact matching: Reconciling theory with the empirical results to improve policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    7. Konstantinos Bourazas & Guido Consonni & Laura Deldossi, 2024. "Bayesian sample size determination for detecting heterogeneity in multi-site replication studies," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 33(3), pages 697-716, September.
    8. Heyard, Rachel & Pawel, Samuel & Frese, Joris & Voelkl, Bernhard & Würbel, Hanno & McCann, Sarah & Held, Leonhard & Wever, Kimberley E. PhD & Hartmann, Helena & Townsin, Louise, 2024. "A scoping review on metrics to quantify reproducibility: a multitude of questions leads to a multitude of metrics," MetaArXiv apdxk, Center for Open Science.
    9. Samuel Pawel & Frederik Aust & Leonhard Held & Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, 2024. "Power priors for replication studies," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 33(1), pages 127-154, March.
    10. Craig, Russell & Cox, Adam & Tourish, Dennis & Thorpe, Alistair, 2020. "Using retracted journal articles in psychology to understand research misconduct in the social sciences: What is to be done?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    11. Guillaume Coqueret, 2023. "Forking paths in financial economics," Papers 2401.08606, arXiv.org.
    12. Huber, Christoph & Dreber, Anna & Huber, Jürgen & Johannesson, Magnus & Kirchler, Michael & Weitzel, Utz & Abellán, Miguel & Adayeva, Xeniya & Ay, Fehime Ceren & Barron, Kai & Berry, Zachariah & Bönte, 2023. "Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 120(23), pages 1-1.
    13. repec:osf:osfxxx:gmfs9_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Bialek, Michal & Misiak, Michał & Dziekan, Martyna, 2021. "Why is the statistical revolution not progressing? Vicious cycle of the scientific reform," OSF Preprints gmfs9, Center for Open Science.
    15. Samuel Pawel & Leonhard Held, 2022. "The sceptical Bayes factor for the assessment of replication success," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 84(3), pages 879-911, July.
    16. Adler, Susanne Jana & Röseler, Lukas & Schöniger, Martina Katharina, 2023. "A toolbox to evaluate the trustworthiness of published findings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. Gregory Chernov, 2025. "The Alternative Factors Leading to Replication Crisis: Prediction and Evaluation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 49(1), pages 147-164, February.
    18. repec:osf:metaar:apdxk_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Beau Coker & Cynthia Rudin & Gary King, 2021. "A Theory of Statistical Inference for Ensuring the Robustness of Scientific Results," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6174-6197, October.
    20. Mayo, Deborah, 2024. "Error statistics, Bayes-factor Tests and the Fallacy of Non-exhaustive Alternatives," OSF Preprints tmgqd, Center for Open Science.
    21. Dreber, Anna & Heikensten, Emma & Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny, 2022. "Why do women ask for less?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    22. Ruijun Hou & Samuel Baker & Stephanie von Hinke & Hans H. Sievertsen & Emil Sorensen & Nicolai Vitt, 2025. "Long-term Health and Human Capital Effects of EarlyLife Economic Conditions," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 25/814, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    23. Ardila Brenøe, Anne & Eyibak, Zeynep & Heursen, Lea & Ranehill, Eva & Weber, Roberto A., 2024. "Gender Identity and Economic Decision Making," Working Papers 2024:6, Lund University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.i4replication.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.