Bayesian design of "successful" replications

Replication of experiments is common in applied research. However, systematic studies of the goals and motivations of a "replication" are rare. As a consequence, there does not seem to be a precise notion of what a "success" when replicating means. This article discusses some of the possible goals for replication; this leads to different (but precise) notions of "success" when replicating. Bayesian hierarchical models allow for a flexible and explicit incorporation of the assumed relationship among the experiments. Bayesian predictive distributions are a natural tool to compute the probability of the replication being successful, and hence to design the replication so that the probability of success is high enough. Derivations-are exemplified with data coming from a noncentral t distribution.