This event is part of the Coffee Lectures on Open Science Education.

Abstract: Reproducibility is often taught as a set of principles: share data, document code, pre-specify analyses, and make results transparent. Replication Games turn these principles into practice. In these hackathon-style events, researchers work in small teams to reproduce and stress-test published studies, learning not only whether results can be recreated, but also how empirical claims depend on documentation, coding choices, and analytical judgment. At the Institute for Replication, these events have become a scalable model for combining training, community-building, and cumulative science: teams develop practical skills while contributing structured evidence on the reproducibility and robustness of the literature. In this talk, I will discuss Replication Games as both pedagogy and research infrastructure. I will also reflect on our recent CBS Replication Games in the Netherlands, where researchers attempted reproductions using restricted-access Dutch administrative microdata in a secure environment. That experience highlights a central frontier for reproducible science: how to make independent verification possible when the most policy-relevant data cannot be openly shared.

Speaker: Lenka Fiala, Insitute for Replication (University of Ottawa)

Lenka Fiala is a research scientist at the Institute for Replication (University of Ottawa). She is also affiliated with Tilburg University. Her research focuses on the replicability and robustness of findings in social and behavioral sciences, often through large-scale collaborative projects and re-analyses of existing evidence. She also combine experimental approaches with administrative data to understand human capital development.