A tale of two cultures: Revisiting journal editors' views of replication research

While replications are an important and integral component of the scientific method, and are common in the natural science literature, the usefulness of replication research is not as widely practiced in the social sciences. The authors previously (1995, 2000) investigated the prevalence of replication research by soliciting journal editors' perceptions of their disciplines' attitudes toward such work. Originally, two studies questioned editors — first in the natural and social sciences and, later, editors in advertising, communications, and marketing journals. Findings included that natural science editors have generally endorsed replication as a necessary part of research, while social science editors have been less than enthusiastic about its adoption. Marketing communications and advertising editors responded consistently with that of most other social science editors. This paper revisits journal editors' views of replication research and updates the state of research in the social sciences.