Interesting vs. Exploitable

Does failure to replicate dampen interest in previously published research? In their May 2021 paper entitled “Non-replicable Publications Are Cited More Than Replicable Ones”, Marta Serra-Garcia and Uri Gneezy use results of three recent replication studies to compare citation rates for papers published in top psychology, economics and general science journals that fail to replicate versus those that do replicate. Replication rates in those past studies are 39% in psychology (replication study published 2015), 61% in economics (replication study published 2016) and 62% in general science (replication study published 2018). Strengths of replicated findings compared to original study findings are 75% for those that do replicate and 0% for those that do not replicate. The authors look at citation rates before and after publication of associated replication studies and also assess the nature/potential impact of citations. Using citations of the studied papers through 2019, they find that: (more…)