Additional information about the first five Replication Studies published in eLife. can be found here.

How did we choose these studies?

(1) Studies were selected by searching Scopus and Web of Science for the most cited papers in the field of cancer biology using the search terms (cancer, onco*, tumor*, metasta*, neoplas*, malignan*, carcino*).

(2) The top 400 most cited papers from Web of Science in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and the top 400 most cited papers from Scopus in 2010, 2011, and 2012 were combined to make the sampling frame. Many papers were present in both the top 400 from Web of Science and the top 400 of Scopus, yielding a total of 584 papers from 2010, 548 papers from 2011, and 543 papers from 2012.

(3) Altmetrics scores from Mendeley and Altmetric.com were collected for the entire dataset.

(4) All metrics were normalized by dividing each metric by the highest in the dataset for that given year. The sum of the normalized metrics were used to create a final impact score assigned to each paper.

(5) Content of the articles were reviewed. Clinical trials, case studies, reviews, and studies reporting sequencing of cancer samples (mainly TCGA studies), and basic research papers not explicitly about cancer, yet still appearing in the results, were excluded. Studies were also excluded if they included unique instrumentation or samples that would be difficult or impossible to obtain. (Total exclusions for 2010 = 83; 2011 = 104; 2012 = 105)

(6) From the remaining set of articles (2010 = 501; 2011 = 444; 2012 = 438), we selected the top 17 papers in 2010, top 17 in 2011, and top 16 in 2012 based on the within year impact score from step 4 to form the 50 studies chosen for inclusion.

Access the full dataset of all papers identified through the above described method to select papers.

Where can I find the list of studies being replicated?

For a list of the cancer biology papers that are being replicated visit this google doc, with keywords associated with each of the publications found on this spreadsheet.

View the Project Progress spreadsheet to see the current overall progress.

If you are looking for content related to one of the replications studies, visit the Studies dashboard to find the appropriate component.

Questions can be directed to contact+rpcb@cos.io.