Mission Statement

To date, a host of research has identified concerns with the replication of psychological research, leading to the formation of projects such as the Many Labs, STORK (Society for Transparency, Openness and Replication in Kinesiology), and the Reproducibility Project in Psychology.

However, very little research has investigated the quality, practice and reliability of findings within the field of Sports Science. This field is under threat from low sample sizes, high risk of bias, and invested interests in the outcomes of applied or commercial findings for sport (Heneghan et al, 20121; Knudson, 20172; Halperin et al, 20183).

Scientific progress may be halted because of questionable research practices and the focus on novel or unexpected results. Therefore, the Sports Science Replication Centre intends to investigate the credibility of these replication concerns within our own field, to improve the standard of scientific enquiry, thus leading to a better understanding in the interpretation and conduct of research for all moving forward.

  1. Halperin, I., Vigotsky, A.D., Foster, C., Pyne, D.B., 2018. Strengthening the practice of exercise and sport-science research. Int. J. Sports Physiol. Perform. 13, 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2017-0322 ↩︎

  2. Heneghan, C., Perera, R., Nunan, D., Mahtani, K., Gill, P., 2012. Forty years of sports performance research and little insight gained. BMJ 345. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e4797 ↩︎

  3. Knudson, D., 2017. Confidence crisis of results in biomechanics research. Sport. Biomech. 16, 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2016.1246603 ↩︎

Aims

  • Establish a collaborative lab network worldwide
  • Critically evaluate the replicability of sports science research by undertaking replication trials of single effects
  • Report replication outcomes using meta-analytic procedures
  • Present an initial overview of the replicability of sports science research
For more information on collaborating with us please contact us.

Recommended Reading

We recommend the below publications for more information about replication.

  • Caldwell, A.R., Vigotsky, A.D., Tenan, M.S., Radel, R., Mellor, D.T., Kreutzer, A., Lahart, I.M., Mills, J.P. and Boisgontier, M.P., 2020. Moving sport and exercise science forward: a call for the adoption of more transparent research practices. Sports Medicine, 50(3), pp.449-459. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01227-1
  • Nosek, B.A. and Errington, T.M., 2020. What is replication?. PLoS biology, 18(3), p.e3000691. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000691
  • Open Science Collaboration, 2012. An open, large-scale, collaborative effort to estimate the reproducibility of psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), pp.657-660. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1745691612462588
  • Asendorpf, J.B., Conner, M., De Fruyt, F., De Houwer, J., Denissen, J.J., Fiedler, K., Fiedler, S., Funder, D.C., Kliegl, R., Nosek, B.A. and Perugini, M., 2013. Recommendations for increasing replicability in psychology. European journal of personality, 27(2), pp.108-119. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1919