TIER2 was a three year, EC-funded project (2023-2025) to investigate the causes, consequences and possible solutions of perceived poor levels of reproductivity of research. Reproducibility, roughly defined as the possibility for the scientific community to obtain the same results as the originators of specific findings, is often claimed as a central principle of scientific methods in many disciplines. Recently, concerns about a “reproducibility crisis” have grown in a variety of disciplines, especially in behavioural and medical sciences. This has been exacerbated by key problems such as a lack of transparency in reporting, data, and analysis, lack of replication studies, publication bias towards reporting of positive results, and a growing awareness of questionable research practices. Poor levels of reproducibility are seen as a serious threat to scientific self-correction, efficiency of research processes, and societal trust in research results.
Yet “reproducibility” is not an easily defined concept. Multiple understandings exist (including a labyrinth of competing definitions), its relevance as an indicator of research quality differs greatly based on the nature of the research, and there are also a host of socio-technical factors at play (for example, access to tools and infrastructures, incentive systems, research cultures).
In response to these challenges, TIER2 centred epistemic diversity (i.e. diverse approaches to how knowledge is obtained) by selecting three broad research areas - social, life, and computer sciences, and two cross-disciplinary stakeholder groups - research publishers and funders, to systematically investigate reproducibility across contexts. Through coordinated co-creation with these communities, TIER2:
- Examined the epistemological, social, and technical factors that shape reproducibility across contexts
- Built a state-of-the-art evidence-base on extent and efficacy of existing reproducibility interventions and practices
- Used co-creation techniques including scenario-planning, backcasting, and user-centred design to conceive and co-design new reproducibility-related tools and practices with our stakeholder groups
- Implemented and assessed these new tools via a series of pilot activities
- Conducted a series of capacity-building activities including supporting new Reproducibility Networks, creating training modules, a developing a ReproducibilityHub
