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‘Doing good science is hard’: retraction of high-profile reproducibility study prompts soul-searching

A paper by some of the biggest names in scientific integrity is retracted for issues including misstatements about the research plan.
By
  1. Holly Else

The retraction of a high-profile paper1 that tested ways to improve the soundness of scientific studies has highlighted the challenges of such ‘reproducibility’ research. The retracted paper’s authors include some of the titans in the field.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03178-8

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 17 October 2024: This article has been amended to clarify Berna Devezer’s field of study and to emphasize that not all of the authors of the original study signed the response to the retraction.

  • Clarification 23 October 2024: This article has been changed to emphasize the range of issues flagged in a preprint about the retracted paper and the source of the statement that 86% of replication efforts were successful.

References

  1. Protzko, J. et al. Nature Hum. Behav. 8, 311–319 (2023).

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  2. Protzko, J. et al. Nature Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01997-3 (2024).

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  3. Protzko, J., Zedelius, C. M. & Schooler, J. W. Psychol. Sci. 30, 1584–1591 (2019).

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  4. Bak-Coleman, J. & Devezer, B. Preprint at PsyArXiv https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5u3kj (2024).

  5. Bak-Coleman, J. & Devezer, B. Nature Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01982-w (2024).

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  6. Protzko, L. et al. Preprint at https://osf.io/2s94g (2024).

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