The Prevalence of Replication Studies in Human Factors (2020-2024)

Abstract

Replication studies contribute to scientific self-correction and assessing the credibility of a given effect. This study examined the prevalence of replication studies published in Human Factors from 2020 to 2024 (N = 550). Of the studies coded, 8.59% explicitly identified replication as an aim. Of these, 19.51% were direct replications, 24.39% were conceptual replications, and 56.10% were direct replications with extensions. About three-quarters of replication efforts were conducted by non-independent teams (i.e., at least one author shared with the original publication) while the rest were independent (i.e., no authors in common with the original publication). These findings suggest that replication studies are more common in ergonomics and human factors than in some related fields, but that more independent replication efforts might be valuable.