The (Non)Academic Community Forming around Replications: Mapping the International Open Science space via its Replication Initiatives

The replicability as well as the reproducibility of research findings has been a central concern for methodological standards in many research fields for several decades. However, the most recent wave – as represented by the Open Science movement – and their efforts to improve and increase replicability and reproducibility in science have since grown to a level that surpasses earlier debates: Concerns are no longer confined to specific fields, but have become cross- and trans-disciplinary, even involving actors from outside the strictly academic sphere, such as commercial academic publishers, business entrepreneurs, private funders, and political stakeholders. In this paper we take a closer look at one of the movement’s core communities, the community forming around replications. By sharing our observations of ‘replication initiatives’ (RIs), and their infrastructures we derive a typology of its most visibly engaged actors, hoping to provide those interested in science reform with a systematic perspective on how to assess the ongoing reform proposals and activities within the Open Science space.