Navigating the Reliability of Sports Science Research

Joe Warne, PhD, is a researcher at the Technological University Dublin. Joe is a main driver behind the Sports Science Replication Centre, that aims to replicate studies in the field of sports science to critically evaluate the quality and validity of the research. Joe and his team recently published a large-scale study showing that only 28% of randomly selected studies could be replicated, which has led to great concerns regarding the quality and methodology in sports science, and could impact how we view and consume science. 

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS: 

• What are the replication concerns in sports science, and why does it matter? 
• How can coaches and athletes navigate scientific research, given the methodological issues that exist? 
• How to discern between more and less credible findings in sports science
• The underlying issues: publication bias, underpowered study designs, and questionable research practices
• The way forward

DETAILED EPISODE SHOWNOTES: 

• We have detailed shownotes for all of our episodes. The shownotes are basically the podcast episode in written form, that you can read in 5-10 minutes. They are not transcriptions, but they are also not just surface-level overviews. They provide detailed insights and timestamps for each episode, and are great especially for later review, after you've already listened to an episode. Naturally, as great as they are, they do not cover absolutely everything in as great detail as we can do in a 45-90 minute podcast episode.  
• The shownotes for today's episode can be found at www.scientifictriathlon.com/tts468/

LINKS AND RESOURCES: 

• Joe's ResearchGate profile
• Sports Science Replication Centre website
• Replication concerns in sports and exercise science: a narrative review of selected methodological issues in the field - Mesquida et al. 2022
• Estimating the Replicability of Sports and Exercise Science Research - Murphy et al. 2025
• Publication bias, statistical power and reporting practices in the Journal of Sports Sciences: potential barriers to replicability - Mesquida et al. 2023
• On the replicability of sports and exercise science research: assessing the prevalence of publication bias and studies with underpowered designs by a z-curve analysis - Mesquida et al. 2025
• A scoping review of the transparency, reporting practices and methodological rigor of meta-analyses published in Sports Medicine - Mesquida et al. 2025
• prevalence, reporting practices, and methodological quality of a priori power analyses in sports and exercise science research - Mesquida et al. 2025

WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NEXT?

If you enjoyed this episode, I think you'll love the following episodes: 

• Manuel Sola Arjona – The Nature of Training and complexity science | EP#437
• Balancing the art and the science of endurance training with Susan Sotir, PhD | EP#167
• The Skeptic’s Guide To Sports Science with Nicholas Tiller, PhD | EP#239

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