Reproducibility is integral to science, but difficult to achieve. Previous research has quantified low rates of data availability and results reproducibility across the biological and behavioural sciences. Here, we surveyed 560 empirical publications, published between 1955 and 2018 in the social learning literature, a research topic that spans animal behaviour, behavioural ecology, cultural evolution and evolutionary psychology. Data were recoverable online or through direct data requests for 30% of this sample. Data recovery declines exponentially with time since publication, halving every 6 years, and up to every 9 years for human experimental data. When data for a publication can be recovered, we estimate a high probability of subsequent data usability (87%), analytical clarity (97%) and agreement of published results with reproduced findings (96%). This corresponds to an overall rate of recovering data and reproducing results of 23%, largely driven by the unavailability or incompleteness of data. We thus outline clear measures to improve the reproducibility of research on the ecology and evolution of social behaviour.
Interest in improving reproducibility, replicability and transparency of research has increased substantially across scientific fields over the last few decades. We surveyed 560 empirical, quantitative publications published between 1955 and 2018, to estimate the rate of reproducibility for research on social learning, a large subfield of behavioural ecology. We found supporting materials were available for less than 30% of publications during this period. The availability of data declines exponentially with time since publication, with a half-life of about six years, and this “data decay rate” varies systematically with both study design and study species. Conditional on materials being available, we estimate that a reasonable researcher could expect to successfully reproduce about 80% of published results, based on our evaluating a subset of 40 publications. Taken together, this indicates an overall success rate of 24% for both acquiring materials and recovering published results, with non- reproducibility of results primarily due to unavailable, incomplete, or poorly documented data. We provide recommendations to improve the reproducibility of research on the ecology and evolution of social behaviour.
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