John has posted a couple of times about replication in economics journal articles. Elsevier, who may be taking the lead in encouraging replication, is putting out a special issue on replication in Energy Economics:
In this special issue, we will particularly welcome two types of papers, without excluding other forms of replication (Clemens 2015). First, we would like to see replication of older but prominent research. Prominent papers would be ones that are frequently cited or used in policy making. This type of paper would ask whether the old results stand up if newer data are added and methods are brought up to date. If not, why? At the core of this type of contribution would be a table with the original results, the best attempt at replication, and the results with additional data or alternative methods (Reed and Alm 2015). Papers eligible for replication include all economics papers with some relation to energy.
In recent years, Energy Economics has made data and code available for empirical papers. The second type of replication paper we would like to see takes a number of recent articles to check whether the results stand up if all the evidence is put together. For instance, different authors may have worked on the same data with different methods. Can the difference in findings be explained? Is there an objective way to distinguish between more and less credible results? In other cases, different authors may have used similar methods for different data, for example, for different countries, different economic sectors, or different energy sources. What happens to the results if the data are pooled? Again, the replication paper should revolve around a table with original results, replication results, and new results. As above, the replicated papers have to be in economics with some relation to energy. If the majority of replicated papers were published in Elsevier journals, then we will publish a virtual special issue consisting of the replicated paper(s), the replication paper, and the commentaries by the original authors.
And also:
Besides the special issue, we have created “replication paper” as a new type of submission. Replication will not end with this special issue.
This is, I think, terrific news. Economics desperately needs to be able to publish replications. I don't do any energy work, but good luck to any who submit.
Will
This work is not a product of the United States Government or the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the author is not doing this work in any governmental capacity. The views expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the United States or the US EPA.
