Investigating the reproducibility of the social and behavioural sciences

Abstract

Published claims should be reproducible, yielding the same result when the same analysis is applied to the same data1,2. Here we assess reproducibility in a stratified random sample of 600 papers published from 2009 to 2018 in 62 journals spanning the social and behavioural sciences. The authors of 144 (24.0%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 20.8–27.6%) papers made data available to assess reproducibility and, for 38 others, we obtained source data to reconstruct the dataset. We assessed 143 out of the 182 available datasets and found that 76.6 (53.6%, 95% CI = 45.8–60.7%) papers were rated as precisely reproducible and 105.0 (73.5%, 95% CI = 66.4–80.0%) were rated as at least approximately reproducible (within 15% of the original effects or within 0.05 of original P values) after inverse weighting each of the 551 claims by the number of claims per paper. We observed higher reproducibility for papers from political science and economics compared with other fields, for more recent papers compared with older papers and for papers from journals that require data sharing. Implementation of measures to verify that research is reproducible is needed to support trustworthiness in the complex enterprise of knowledge production3,4.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Miske, O. Abatayo, A.L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2686-5075 Daley, M. Dirzo, M. Fox, N. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3772-8666 Haber, N. Hahn, K.M. Struhl, M.K. Mawhinney, B. Silverstein, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0095-339X Stankov, T. Tyner, A.H. Adamkovič, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9648-9108 Alzahawi, S. Anafinova, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4466-3426 Awtrey, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6712-0256 Axxe, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0426-5722 Bailey, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6132-6026 Bakker, B.N. Balaji, A. Banik, G. Bartoš, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0018-5573 Berkman, H. Berry, Z. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0827-6437 Bethke, F.S. Brady, T.F. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5924-5211 Breznau, N. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4983-3137 Capitan, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6519-6073 Capitán, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5055-3995 Caquelin, L. Cheng, K.J. Chopik, W.J. Clochard, G.-J. Coupé, T. Cummins, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9729-4900 Burak, E.G.D. Duan, J. Esterling, K.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5529-6422 Evans, T.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6670-0718 Fiala, N. Field, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8487-6648 Gay, V. Geng, J. Gereke, J. Gleibs, I.H. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9913-250X Gourdon-Kanhukamwe, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3060-1320 Grigoryev, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4511-7942 Gunby, N. Hanel, P.H.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3225-1395 Hong, S. Houlihan, S.D. Huntington-Klein, N. Izydorczak, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9870-3825 Jankowsky, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4847-0760 Jonas, K. Kačmár, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0076-1945 Kapoor, H. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0805-7752 Karcher, S. Kołczyńska, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4981-0437 Kretschmer, D. Lazarevic, L. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1629-3699 Leahy, K.E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3638-3694 Lee, J.C. Limnios, C. Liu, A.-C. Lloyd, J.W. Lopez-Nicolas, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6963-7443 Lou, N.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1363-833X Lucas, R.E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7995-3319 Maier, M. Mallinson, D.J. Martončik, M. McCall, M.C. Mehta, N. Méndez, E. Michalak, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4701-5464 Molden, D.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2182-5621 Mushtaq, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7881-1127 Neuendorf, C. Nichols, A.L. Nilsonne, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5273-0150 O’Boyle, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9365-1069 Oh, J. Ostermann, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2695-0701 Oyebanjo, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6274-043X Panczak, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5141-683X Pavlov, Y.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3896-5145 Pavlović, Z. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9231-5100 Peter, N. Peters, K. Porter, N.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0479-6777 Purol, M. Puthillam, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2426-8362 Ramljak, M. https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1502-6453 Reader, A.T. Reed, W.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6459-8174 Röer, J.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7774-3433 Ropovik, I. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5222-1233 Savi, A.O. Schmidt, K. Schnabel, L. Sevigny, E.L. Shaki, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2340-5401 Shakya, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6272-6654 Soh, A. Somo, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9069-9462 Sonmez, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4054-0269 Strømland, E. Suchow, J.W. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9848-4872 Szabelska, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-3787 Tagat, A. Tutor, M.V. Urbanska, K. Van Dessel, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3401-780X Vargo, E.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5123-1170 Vo, D.T.H. Volkman, V. Wang, K. Wichman, A.L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2641-440X Williams, J.R. Winter, F. Wintermantel, F. Zhang, N. Ziano, I. Zogmaister, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1540-7503 Zupan, Z. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0763-8192 Nosek, B.A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6797-5476 Errington, T.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4959-5143
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	This is an author produced version of an article published in Nature, made available via the University of Leeds Research Outputs Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Dates:	Accepted: 27 January 2026 Published (online): 1 April 2026 Published: 2 April 2026
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds)
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) BB/X008428/1
Date Deposited:	10 Apr 2026 10:02
Last Modified:	10 Apr 2026 10:02
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Research
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41586-026-10203-5
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:239745

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Investigating the reproducibility of the social and behavioural sciences

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