Reproductions and replications (R&R) are needed in GIScience for the same reasons they are needed in other sciences - one-off studies provide insufficient evidence for developing and testing generalizable explanations of phenomena. Nonetheless, R&R studies remain rare in the geographic literature because they are not highly valued in current academic incentive systems and are seen as resource and time intensive. One possible solution to this problem is to include reproduction and replication attempts in advanced GIScience coursework. The inclusion of R&R projects in the GIScience classroom provides a number of benefits including immersing students in current scientific debates, linking student work to as yet unresolved, substantive hypotheses, all while increasing the body of R&R studies in the geographic literature. Additionally, completing R&R attempts in the classroom is a form of project-based learning and a valid “learn by doing” pedagogical approach. Here, we conceptually link PBL and R&R, and provide an actionable framework educators can use to integrate R&R into a semester course. Drawing on our experience attempting reproductions and replications and using R&R projects in the classroom, we discuss common challenges faced when implementing this pedagogical approach and the path to successfully publishing such studies. Finally, we suggest recent geographic research those interested in our approach might attempt to replicate and link each the studies we identify to concepts and techniques taught in an intermediate to advanced GIScience course
- Publication:
- OSF Preprint:
- Course Website: https://opengisci.github.io/
- Repository Template: https://github.com/HEGSRR/HEGSRR-Template
- Example Reproductions: Malcomb et al. (2014), Chakraborty (2021), Spielman et al. (2020), Kang et al. (2020), Vijayan et al. (2020), Saffary et al. (2020), Mollalo et al. (2020), DiMaggio et al. (2020).
The contents of this repository are outlined in three tables: