Reproducibility: Difference between revisions

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''Replicability'' and ''repeatability'' are related terms broadly or loosely synonymous with reproducibility (for example, among the general public), but they are often usefully differentiated in more precise senses, as follows.

WhenTwo major steps are naturally distinguished in connection with reproducibility of experimental or observational studies: when new data isare obtained in the attempt to achieve it, the term ''replicability'' is often used, and the new study is a ''replication'' or ''replicate'' of the original one. Obtaining the same results when analyzing the data set of the original study again with the same procedures, many authors use the term ''reproducibility'' in a narrow, technical sense coming from its use in computational research. ''Repeatability'' is related to the ''repetition'' of the experiment within the same study by the same researchers. Reproducibility in the original, wide sense is only acknowledged if a replication performed by an ''independent researcher team'' is successful.

Two major steps are naturally distinguished in connection with reproducibility of experimental or observational studies:

When new data is obtained in the attempt to achieve it, the term ''replicability'' is often used, and the new study is a ''replication'' or ''replicate'' of the original one. Obtaining the same results when analyzing the data set of the original study again with the same procedures, many authors use the term ''reproducibility'' in a narrow, technical sense coming from its use in computational research.

''Repeatability'' is related to the ''repetition'' of the experiment within the same study by the same researchers.

Reproducibility in the original, wide sense is only acknowledged if a replication performed by an ''independent researcher team'' is successful.

The terms reproducibility and replicability sometimes appear even in the scientific literature with reversed meaning,<ref>{{cite arXiv|title=Terminologies for Reproducible Research|last1=Barba|first1=Lorena A.|year=2018|class=cs.DL |eprint=1802.03311}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Replicability vs. reproducibility — or is it the other way round?|last1=Liberman|first1=Mark|url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=21956|access-date=2020-10-15}}</ref> as different research fields settled on their own definitions for the same terms.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Brooke on the Merton Thesis: A Direct Replication of John Hedley Brooke's Chapter on Scientific and Religious Reform.|last1=Van Eyghen|first1=Hans|last2=Van den Brink| first2=Gijsbert |last3=Peels | first3=Rik|year=2024|journal=Zygon |volume=59| issue=2| url=https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/11497/#!}}</ref>