I have posted a number of times reporting on calls for more publication of replication studies and negative results. In 2013, the increased interest in replication studies was capped by an article in the Guardian by Randy Schekman, a winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine. Schekman called for a boycott of the prestigious journals Nature, Cell, and Science (Schekman referred to them as “luxury journals”). Schekman criticizes these journals because: “they accept papers that will make waves because they explore sexy subjects or make challenging claims…. discouraging other important work, such as replication studies.” Schekman has become an editor of eLife, an open access journal.
Michael Eisen, Schekman’s colleague at Berkeley applauds Schekman, but says in this article that Schekman did not go far enough. Eisen, who is one of the founders of the journal PLOS, says: “I believe that we need to dispense entirely with journals and with the idea that a few reviewers – no matter how wise – can decide how significant a work is at the time.”