Replication Rate by Journal Rank

Do papers published in more prestigious journals replicate more or less often? Each original paper is matched to its journal’s SJR overall rank and classified as “replicated” if at least 75% of its effect replications succeeded under the selected criterion. Metric shown: SJR overall rank, at publication year.

Rate = success / (success + failure + reversal); inconclusive and unrecorded outcomes excluded, where success means the outcome recorded in the database. Unit: replication effect (n = 6,931 — originals whose journal is matched in the SCImago rank dataset). How this is defined.

4,518 papers plotted · 400 excluded (no publication-year SJR overall rank) · 838 excluded (inconclusive outcome)

Replication rate by SJR quartile

0%25%50%75%100%Q1: 55.9% replicated (2278/4078), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [53–59%]56%Q1n=4078Q2: 65.0% replicated (193/297), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [58–71%]65%Q2n=297Q3: 70.8% replicated (46/65), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [60–81%]71%Q3n=65Q4: 71.4% replicated (5/7), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [33–100%]71%Q4n=7Replication rate (%)SCImago best quartile (Q1 = most prestigious)The Metascience Observatory

All papers grouped by their journal’s SCImago best-quartile in the publication year (Q1 = most prestigious). Whiskers are 95% intervals from a journal-cluster bootstrap (1,000 resamples of journals with replacement). Most replicated papers come from Q1 journals, so the higher quartiles have few papers and wide intervals.

Replication rate by SJR overall rank quintile

0%25%50%75%100%4–184: 45.6% replicated (412/903), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [41–50%]46%4–184n=903184–489: 51.8% replicated (468/904), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [46–59%]52%184–489n=904489–1,292: 57.5% replicated (519/903), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [54–62%]57%489–1,292n=9031,292–3,072: 61.7% replicated (558/904), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [58–65%]62%1,292–3,072n=9043,074–34,928: 67.9% replicated (614/904), cluster-bootstrap 95% CI [64–72%]68%3,074–34,928n=904Journal SJR overall rank at time of original study's publication (quintile range)Replication rate (%)The Metascience Observatory

All papers with a publication-year SJR overall rank, split into five equal-count bins (note: rank 1 is the most prestigious, so bins run best → worst left to right). Whiskers are cluster-bootstrap 95% intervals.

Per-journal replication rate vs SJR overall rank

0%25%50%75%100%1101001,00010,000Nature Genetics SJR overall rank: 8.692 Replication rate: 53% (n=117), 95% CI [44–62%]The Quarterly Journal of Economics SJR overall rank: 12.294 Replication rate: 53% (n=17), 95% CI [31–74%]Nature SJR overall rank: 25.593 Replication rate: 44% (n=54), 95% CI [32–58%]Science SJR overall rank: 35.814 Replication rate: 43% (n=86), 95% CI [33–54%]New England Journal of Medicine SJR overall rank: 39.833 Replication rate: 50% (n=18), 95% CI [29–71%]Neuron SJR overall rank: 45.467 Replication rate: 53% (n=15), 95% CI [30–75%]American Economic Review SJR overall rank: 90.8 Replication rate: 55% (n=55), 95% CI [42–67%]American Journal of Human Genetics SJR overall rank: 107.559 Replication rate: 32% (n=34), 95% CI [19–49%]PLoS Genetics SJR overall rank: 143.158 Replication rate: 37% (n=19), 95% CI [19–59%]Annals of Neurology SJR overall rank: 183 Replication rate: 21% (n=19), 95% CI [9–43%]Journal of Personality and Social Psychology SJR overall rank: 183.034 Replication rate: 42% (n=149), 95% CI [35–50%]Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences SJR overall rank: 186.178 Replication rate: 52% (n=90), 95% CI [42–62%]Journal of Neuroscience SJR overall rank: 191.7 Replication rate: 55% (n=20), 95% CI [34–74%]Human Molecular Genetics SJR overall rank: 206.727 Replication rate: 42% (n=33), 95% CI [27–59%]American Journal of Psychiatry SJR overall rank: 239.875 Replication rate: 83% (n=24), 95% CI [64–93%]Journal of Consumer Research SJR overall rank: 241.444 Replication rate: 25% (n=36), 95% CI [14–41%]Current Biology SJR overall rank: 244.167 Replication rate: 63% (n=24), 95% CI [43–79%]Nature Communications SJR overall rank: 247.889 Replication rate: 37% (n=27), 95% CI [22–56%]Molecular Psychiatry SJR overall rank: 323.075 Replication rate: 38% (n=40), 95% CI [24–53%]Journal of Abnormal Psychology SJR overall rank: 365.235 Replication rate: 35% (n=17), 95% CI [17–59%]Psychological Science SJR overall rank: 374.105 Replication rate: 40% (n=229), 95% CI [34–47%]Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology SJR overall rank: 380.158 Replication rate: 63% (n=19), 95% CI [41–81%]Biological Psychiatry SJR overall rank: 401.735 Replication rate: 74% (n=34), 95% CI [57–85%]Cerebral Cortex SJR overall rank: 411.941 Replication rate: 47% (n=17), 95% CI [26–69%]Journal of Experimental Psychology: General SJR overall rank: 450.19 Replication rate: 51% (n=63), 95% CI [39–63%]Journal of Memory and Language SJR overall rank: 483.85 Replication rate: 70% (n=20), 95% CI [48–85%]Neurology SJR overall rank: 555.067 Replication rate: 47% (n=15), 95% CI [25–70%]Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience SJR overall rank: 578.053 Replication rate: 47% (n=19), 95% CI [27–68%]Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin SJR overall rank: 629.227 Replication rate: 55% (n=22), 95% CI [35–73%]Schizophrenia Research SJR overall rank: 674.167 Replication rate: 72% (n=18), 95% CI [49–88%]Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition SJR overall rank: 693.623 Replication rate: 62% (n=53), 95% CI [49–74%]Journal of Experimental Social Psychology SJR overall rank: 714.759 Replication rate: 41% (n=29), 95% CI [26–59%]Cognition SJR overall rank: 766.448 Replication rate: 48% (n=58), 95% CI [36–61%]Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes SJR overall rank: 844.235 Replication rate: 41% (n=17), 95% CI [22–64%]NeuroImage SJR overall rank: 893.517 Replication rate: 79% (n=29), 95% CI [62–90%]Neuropsychologia SJR overall rank: 927.2 Replication rate: 75% (n=20), 95% CI [53–89%]Psychonomic Bulletin & Review SJR overall rank: 1,052.607 Replication rate: 46% (n=28), 95% CI [30–64%]Developmental Science SJR overall rank: 1,077.467 Replication rate: 53% (n=15), 95% CI [30–75%]Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance SJR overall rank: 1,092.148 Replication rate: 70% (n=27), 95% CI [52–84%]Cortex SJR overall rank: 1,455.933 Replication rate: 47% (n=15), 95% CI [25–70%]Vision Research SJR overall rank: 1,995.333 Replication rate: 67% (n=15), 95% CI [42–85%]PLOS One SJR overall rank: 2,160.333 Replication rate: 54% (n=87), 95% CI [44–64%]Scientific Reports SJR overall rank: 2,729.833 Replication rate: 75% (n=24), 95% CI [55–88%]Personality and Individual Differences SJR overall rank: 2,864.25 Replication rate: 81% (n=16), 95% CI [57–93%]Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis SJR overall rank: 4,083.75 Replication rate: 84% (n=44), 95% CI [71–92%]Frontiers in Psychology SJR overall rank: 4,998.857 Replication rate: 62% (n=21), 95% CI [41–79%]Nature GeneticsQuarterly Journal of EconomicsNatureScienceNEJMNeuronAm. Econ. ReviewNature CommunicationsAverage SJR overall rank at time of original study's publication — log scaleReplication rate (%)The Metascience Observatory

One point per journal with at least 15 plotted papers. Point size reflects the number of papers; whiskers are 95% Wilson CIs. Lower rank numbers are more prestigious journals.

Rank metrics. All four come from the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). SJR percentile is 100 × (1 − (rank − 1) / N) over that year’s N ranked journals, so it is comparable across years even though the raw rank is not (SCImago ranked ~17,000 journals in 1999, growing to ~32,000 by 2024). SJR quartile is the journal’s best subject-category quartile (Q1–Q4). SJR overall rank is the raw position that year (1 = highest SJR). Journal h-index is SCImago’s cumulative journal h-index (a snapshot, not year-specific). Percentile, quartile, and rank are taken per publication year; papers before 1999 use the 1999 ranking.

Matching. Journal names in the replications database are joined to the SCImago data by ISSN with a normalized-name fallback (~93% of matched journals). Books, preprints, and conference proceedings are not ranked and are excluded.

Attribution. SJR data: SCImago, (n.d.). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank [Portal], retrieved from scimagojr.com (used non-commercially).

Data: replications_database_2026_08_01_120356.csv; rank metrics generated 2026-08-03.

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