Direct and conceptual replication in numerical cognition

Abstract

When we proposed this Special Issue to John Towse, Journal of Numerical Cognition (JNC) Editor-in-Chief back in May 2019, and first spread the news via Twitter and during the second Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society (MCLS) meeting in Ottawa, the world was different. It was a very long time before we had heard of COVID-19. The MCLS was enjoying a fantastic in-person meeting and we were all looking forward to MCLS 2020.As guest editors we had multiple ideas on how to make the best out of the Special Issue when it comes to adoption of Open Science practices, methodological rigor, and using Open Science infrastructure to streamline the process. We were delighted to see so much enthusiasm, encouragement, and support from colleagues, when they heard about the initiative. It was also great to see that we received multiple pre-submission abstracts. Even though the world has changed a lot since then, it has been challenging to everyone involved, and our own roads towards this moment have sometimes been bumpy, we are here, extremely happy, and proud to present the Special Issue on Direct and Conceptual Replication in Numerical Cognition. It comprises 12 replication papers and three commentaries by authors of replicated papers. The contributions are covering most of areas of numerical and mathematical cognition spanning from hard-core basic cognitive effects through developmental studies and interventions (cf. Figure 1 and Table 1). We are even more delighted that finally all our ideas (e.g., data and material sharing, Open Review Reports) on how to get the most out of the Special Issue found their way. At the same time, we are glad to see that since we proposed the special issue, the JNC evolved. For instance, by adopting the Open Science badges it gives even more visible credit for following these practices than it did before. It seems that Open Science including replication attempts is going to be more established and valued in our field.