03/05/2026
**Lunch Bunch!**
Join us this Friday for Dr. Patrick Manapat's talk titled “RDFs, QRPs, and the Replication Crisis, Oh My!” (see abstract below).
*Time: 12:00–1:00 PM
* Location: Dale Hall Tower – Community Room (9th Floor)
Hope to see you there!
Abstract: Concerns about replication failures can be partially recast as concerns about excessive heterogeneity in research results. Although this heterogeneity is an inherent part of science (e.g., sampling variability; studying different conditions), not all heterogeneity results from unavoidable sources. In particular, the flexibility researchers have when designing studies and analyzing data adds additional heterogeneity. This flexibility has been the topic of considerable discussion in the last decade. Ideas, and corresponding phrases, have been introduced to help unpack researcher behaviors, including researcher degrees of freedom and questionable research practices. Using these concepts and phrases, methodological and substantive researchers have considered how researchers’ choices impact statistical conclusions and reduce clarity in the research literature. While progress has been made, inconsistent, vague, and overlapping use of the terminology surrounding these choices has made it difficult to have clear conversations about the most pressing issues. Further refinement of the language conveying the underlying concepts can catalyze further progress. In this talk, I will present a new(ish) taxonomy for assessing research and reporting practices. In addition, I will propose revised definitions for several crucial terms that reduce overlap and enhance conceptual clarity. Finally, I will illustrate the effectiveness of these changes with conceptual demonstrations and discuss how this taxonomy can be valuable to substantive researchers by helping to navigate this flexibility and to methodological researchers by motivating research toward areas of greatest need.
