Philosophers have long identified replication as an important facilitator of scientific progress. Several terms have been used to denote the ability to assess past work through replication, including "intersubjective testability," "reliability," and "verifiability by repetition." Authors of scientific papers typically describe the methods and materials they used in their research so that, at least hypothetically, others can repeat the work and reproduce the reported results. Successful replication of their own and others' work gives researchers confidence in its validity and reassures them about the fruitfulness of the general line of inquiry they are following. In contrast, inability to replicate one's own or others' results casts doubt upon the validity of the previous work. Critics argue that because sociologists infrequently attempt to replicate findings, they are both less able to identify valid lines of inquiry and more likely to follow spurious ones.

One can identify a continuum ranging from...