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Video can make behavioural science more reproducible

Nature Human Behaviour volume 1, Article number: 0128 (2017) Cite this article

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We recommend the widespread use of a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and uniquely powerful tool to improve the transparency and reproducibility of behavioural research — video recordings.

How robust are published findings in the behavioural sciences? Can the results be reproduced based solely on information in the published paper? We suggest that questions about scientific reproducibility1 — especially in the behavioural sciences — often arise because text-based descriptions and static images in the methods sections of journal articles cannot specify procedures and dynamic stimuli in sufficient detail for the study to be readily and reliably replicated by researchers outside of the original research team.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (BCS-1238599) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U01-HD-076595).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Rick O. Gilmore

  2. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    Karen E. Adolph

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  1. Rick O. Gilmore
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  2. Karen E. Adolph
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Correspondence to Rick O. Gilmore.

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Competing interests

Rick O. Gilmore and Karen E. Adolph are co-founders and co-directors of Databrary.org.

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Gilmore, R., Adolph, K. Video can make behavioural science more reproducible. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0128 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0128

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0128

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