Study on the Replicability of Social Science Research

SOEP researcher Cristóbal Moya participated in a large international study on the replicability of social and behavioral science research, which was published in the prestigious journal Nature. As part of the SCORE project, 274 findings from 164 scholarly articles were independently evaluated.

Approximately half of the findings could be replicated, although the measured effects were often smaller than those reported in the original studies. Replication rates varied across disciplines between roughly 43 and 63 percent. As also reported by The New York Times, the study further shows that both human experts and AI models can partly predict replication success. The findings underscore the importance of transparency, open data, and robust scientific evidence.

Tyner, Andrew H., Anna Lou Abatayo, Mason Daley, et al. 2026. Investigating the replicability of the social and behavioural sciences. Nature, 652, 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10078-y