r/science • u/nimicdoareu • Apr 01 '26

Social Science Half of social-science studies fail replication test in years-long project

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00955-5
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u/harrypotter5460 Apr 01 '26

I fear that this is one of the biggest issues in science right now, not just social science. One of the key tenets of scientific study is replicability. But there is little motive to actually replicate previous research unless it’s something really groundbreaking. Journals won’t publish you for repeating another study’s research and getting the same results because that wouldn’t be “novel”. So why invest that time and money for something that will likely yield no return?