A Zotero plugin that discovers replication studies for items in your library using the FORRT Library of Reproduction and Replication Attempts (FLoRA). It scans your local library for DOIs, checks against FLoRA using privacy-preserving prefix matching, notifies you when reproductions and replications exist, and allows easy addition to your library — all without sending identifiable data off your machine.
This plugin was developed as a FORRT project to build a working prototype for the open science community. It helps researchers discover replication studies by identifying items with known replications and unobtrusively notifying them via tags and notes.
Features
- 🔍 Privacy-preserving matching: Uses hash prefixes to query the database without exposing your library contents
- 📚 Batch processing: Checks entire library, selected items, or collections in one operation
- 🔁 Replication support: Detects replication studies, adds outcome-tagged notes, and tags items with “Has Replication” / “Is Replication”
- 🧪 Reproduction support: Detects computational reproductions with dedicated notes and “Has Reproduction” / “Is Reproduction” tags
- 📄 Multiple originals support: Items with more than one original study receive an “Original Articles” note listing each original’s title, DOI, and outcome
- 📖 Read-only library support: Automatically detects read-only group libraries and offers to copy originals and replications to your Personal library
- 🏷️ Automatic tagging: Adds contextual tags including “Has Replication”, “Is Replication”, outcome tags, and “Original present in Read-Only Library”
- 📝 Detailed notes: Creates child notes with replication/reproduction details (title, authors, journal, outcome, DOI)
- 🗂️ Configurable folders: Customize the collection names for replications and reproductions in Preferences
- 🔗 Smart organization: Creates separate collections for originals from read-only libraries and their replications
- 🔄 Bidirectional linking: Automatically links original studies with their replications as related items
- 🚫 Blacklist management: Ban unwanted replications from being re-added during future checks
- ⚡ Auto-check: Checks newly added items automatically; scheduled checks (daily/weekly/monthly) also available
- 🌍 Multi-language support: Available in 5 languages (English, German, Spanish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese Europe)
About the dataset
The Replication Checker uses the FORRT Literature Database (FLoRA) that contains replications and reproductions of studies from many different areas of science. These are distinct divided into:
Replications are studies that intentionally repeat prior research to test whether the original findings hold. To be included in FLoRA, a study must:
- Self-identify as a replication (e.g., “replication of Author (Year)”) before reporting results — replication must be an aim, not just a result
- Identify specific target study/studies that it replicates
- Replicate a study or experiment, not just a single association or finding
Replications can range from close/direct (same methods, same population) to conceptual (testing the same hypothesis with different methods), as long as the above criteria are met. The plugin tags replication outcomes as Successful, Failed, or Mixed, based on how the replication authors characterise their results.
Reproductions are attempts to computationally verify whether reported results can be obtained from the original study’s data and methods. Reproductions are coded along two dimensions:
- Computational success: Were the original results obtained? (Computationally Successful vs Computational Issues)
- Robustness: Do results hold under reasonable alternative specifications? (Robust, Robustness Challenges, or Robustness Not Checked)
Key distinction: If new data are collected or used (e.g., an additional decade of data), it is a replication. If the same data are re-analysed to verify the original results, it is a reproduction.
For more information on usage and functionality, head to Documentation.
Feedback
Do you have feedback for us? Open an issue here if you encounter bugs or documentation issues. You can also contact us anonymously about the Replication Checker.
Funding
The development of the Zotero Replication Checker was funded by UKRI as part of the Making Replications Count project.
Contributors
This plugin is built and maintained by the FORRT community. View all contributors at: