This is a machine translation provided by the European Commission’s eTranslation service to help you understand this page. Please read the conditions of use.
Article Category
Article available in the following languages:
A major study investigates the replicability and reliability of published science experiments.
A massive effort involving 865 researchers has revealed to what extent humans and machines are able to predict if research results can be replicated. This research project known as SCORE (Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence) amassed a huge database of information about the credibility of a large sample of findings. The results were presented in the journal ‘Nature’ on 1 April as a collection of three papers.
The first(opens in new window) paper assessed reproducibility – if a different group of researchers analyses again the original data from an experiment and obtains the same results. The second(opens in new window) examined the robustness of the original studies. This involved an assessment of how consistently a study’s original data produces the same results when analysed using alternative methods, matching those of the published experiment. The third(opens in new window) looked into replicability – will other investigators confirm the findings when repeating the experiment? SCORE evaluated the trustworthiness of research claims from 3 900 papers published between 2009 and 2018 in 62 different journals ranging in subject matter from political science and education to finance and health. The Center for Open Science (COS) coordinated the sampling of claims, the collection of credibility measures, and the execution of replication and reproduction studies. “This is the world’s largest research project to date investigating the reliability of reported scientific results, and an example of how large-scale collaborations can address questions that no single research group could answer alone,” Gustav Nilsonne, associate professor of neuroscience at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet and co-author on all three papers, told ‘Forbes’(opens in new window). “I hope we will see systematic replication attempts in more fields of research in the future.”
Overall, only about half of previously published results can be replicated by new studies. Findings showed that reproducibility, robustness and replicability each capture distinct aspects of research reliability, with published claims varying in their ability to hold up under these different forms of evaluation. “The main message of SCORE is a simple one: research is hard. And, in some ways, the hard work begins after making a discovery,” commented Tim Errington, Senior Director of Research at COS and one of the SCORE project leaders, in a news release(opens in new window). “A tremendous amount of effort is needed to verify and have enough confidence in new discoveries to build foundations for further discovery.” “There are a lot of open questions about the factors that foster credibility and repeatability of research findings,” added another SCORE project leader, Fiona Fidler, professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “Like many productive research efforts, SCORE generated insights, and has prompted even more questions about how to evaluate research in practice.” Sarah Rajtmajer, a SCORE project leader and associate professor at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, explained: “With contributions from almost 900 researchers, the SCORE program provides an enormous amount of evidence to explore and inspire hypotheses for the next round of research. The data and materials are shared publicly so that others might build on this work.” SCORE should improve how research is interpreted and communicated, supporting authors, reviewers, funders, policymakers and readers in better understanding and applying evidence. By improving credibility evaluations, it will direct focus and resources to high-impact fields, speeding up knowledge generation and solutions.
Last update: 16 April 2026
Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/464710-will-world-s-largest-probe-make-us-lose-trust-in-research-findings
European Union, 2026
Your data extraction with Task ID TASK_ID_PLACEHOLDER is available for download.
Your booklet is ready.
Your booklet {{ title }} generated on {{ timestamp }} is available for download.
The file will remain available for {{ hours }} hours, or until you close your browser.
