The irreproducibility of academic preclinical research is negatively impacting the development of effective new therapies for patients. The Reproducibility Initiative aims to reward high-quality, reproducible research and provide a mechanism to identify robust new drug targets for the development of effective new therapies. The Initiative helps researchers outsource their study for validation by expert providers at core facilities and contract research organizations. Researchers who apply are blindly matched with an appropriate, verified provider who then reproduces the study on a fee-for-service basis. Validated studies receive a Certificate of Reproducibility acknowledging that their results have been independently reproduced as part of the Reproducibility Initiative. Researchers have the opportunity to publish the replicated results as an independent publication in the PLOS Reproducibility Collection, and can share their data via the figshare Reproducibility Collection repository. The original study will also be acknowledged as independently reproduced if published in a supporting journal.
