S2: Two Sides of the Replication Coin

WEBINAR REPLICATE REPLICATE: HOW YOU CAN TAKE PART

SESSION 2: Two Sides of the Replication Coin: Ex Post Reproduction and Ex Ante Documentation

We will begin by drawing a distinction between two distinct, but complementary, activities: ex post reproduction and ex ante documentation.
Ex post reproduction refers to reproduction by an independent investigator of empirical results reported by a researcher in a previous publication. This notion of ex post reproduction corresponds to one of the types of replication that this symposium is focused on.

Ex ante documentation refers to materials–data, code, and various forms of supplementary information–that are assembled by the original researchers who conduct a study, and posted publicly with the paper or report in which they present their results. This documentation should contain everything necessary to enable an interested reader to reproduce the results of the study, easily and exactly. The "replication files" that many journals now require authors of quantitative articles to submit are examples of ex ante documentation.

We will then give an overview of Project TIER, an initiative that promotes incorporating instruction in transparent and reproducible methods in the research training of undergraduate and graduate students in quantitative disciplines. The focus of Project TIER has been on ex ante documentation.

We will highlight the complementarities between teaching ex ante documentation and ex post reproduction. The central message:

• Conducting an ex post reproduction of a previously published study is excellent preparation for students who will be constructing ex ante documentation for an empirical project of their own.
• Constructing ex ante documentation for an empirical project of their own is excellent preparation for students who will be conducting an ex post reproduction of a previously published study.

SESSION 2: Video are available here and the part on the Open Science Framework (OSF) here, slides here. | Live Q&A Sep 15, 2022
For discussion please use this session's page on the ReplicationWiki.

SHORT BIOS
Richard Ball is Professor of Economics, and Norm Medeiros is Associate Librarian, both at Haverford College. Ball and Medeiros have been Co-Directors of Project TIER -Teaching Integrity in Empirical Research since they founded the initiative in 2013.