The Design of Replicated Studies

Abstract

Abstract Replication is little discussed in the statistical literature nor practiced widely by statistically minded researchers. It is needed not merely to validate one's findings, but more importantly, to establish the increasing range of radically different conditions under which the findings hold, and the predictable exceptions. This article describes how to design highly differentiated replications. The irrelevance and/or impossibility of identical replications are also discussed. Practical illustrations of the success and failure of replicated studies are given.