I4R × Tropical Disease Research: A Global Reproducibility Initiative
June 15, 2026 · Institute for Replication
Putting the evidence base for global health under the microscope
Tropical diseases impose staggering burdens, particularly on low- and middle-income countries, yet the research guiding billions of dollars in interventions has never been rigorously checked for reproducibility. This I4R project changes that.
We are systematically reproducing causal and interventional tropical disease studies published from 2015 onward in leading economics, public health, and general-interest journals.
Why does this matter?
When policies and programs are built on opaque or irreproducible findings, the costs go beyond academia. Ineffective interventions waste resources. Inequitable ones cause harm. In global health, where decisions affect millions of lives and billions in funding, the integrity of the underlying research has never mattered more
What we're doing
For each eligible study, teams of graduate students and researchers will:
- Reproduce reported results using the original data and code, where code was provided by the original authors
- Reproduce reported results using the original data and independently written code, where no code was provided
- Conduct robustness checks to stress-test key findings
- Attempt to replicate main results using new data, where applicable, to assess external validity
- Produce a structured 10–15 page reproduction report, shared openly with authors and the public
Reproductions will be organized through I4R's signature Replication Games, structured hackathons that bring together researchers worldwide, as well as open participation from any team that wishes to contribute.
What comes next
The project will produce:
- A large set of reproduction reports on recent tropical disease studies
- A meta-paper aggregating reproducibility findings across the full sample
- Insights into how research practices on the same topic compare across fields: economics vs. public health
A call to the community
This effort is open and collaborative. Researchers, PhD students, journal editors, and global health institutions are all invited to engage, whether through Replication Games or directly with I4R.