Same as It Ever Was: An Updated Review of Replication Studies in Special Education Journals

Abstract

Despite the importance of replication studies, previous reviews showed that they comprised less than 1% of publications in special education journals. This review conceptually replicates Lemons and colleagues’ previous review to provide updated rates of replication studies in special education journals. We identified 78 studies published in 44 special education journals between 2015 and 2022 that used the term replicat* and met our definition of replication, constituting 0.54% of all publications. Similar to previous findings, most replication studies were conceptual, successfully replicated previous results, and were conducted by one or more authors of the study being replicated. Replications with author overlap were significantly more likely to successfully reproduce the findings of the original study. Journal impact factor was significantly and positively related to journal-level replication rate. Publication rates of replications in special education journals remain similar to previous decades, suggesting that additional efforts are needed to increase the publication of replication research.