Reproducible and replicable pain research: a critical review

Recently, the degree to which scientific publications provides a reliable source of information has come under intense scrutiny. Reports suggest that a substantial amount of published literature is likely to be biased, distorted, and non-reproducible. This cuts across basic, pre-clinical, and clinical research. It has been estimated that non-reproducible preclinical research consumes $28 billion/year (USD) and that 85% of biomedical research resources are wasted on biased research. The response from the scientific and policy community has been to identify common practices that contribute to the problem, and develop methods to counteract them. This matter is very relevant to the pain field. Understanding the causes of non-reproducible and non-replicable research and its ultimate impact on how we prevent and treat pain should assist pain researchers to improve the reproducibility and replicability of their work. The distinction between reproducibility and replicability is presented in Figure 1 and defined elsewhere. This paper aims to: (1) define drivers of non-reproducible and non-replicable research with examples from pain sciences and broader research fields; and (2) provide an overview of potential solutions and practices that could improve reproducibility and replicability of pain research.