Abstract
Commercial academic publishing alongside academia’s strong focus on rewarding novelty has led to the neglect of research verification (e.g., reproduction, robustness, and replication studies). Scholar-led publishing, which focuses on rigour rather than the surprising nature of findings, has been proposed as one alternative. We present Replication Research (R2) as an example of a university-hosted, diamond open access community journal. We discuss the process of working with and for the community with the help of a research library and explain how open documentation and inclusive academic exchange can help align the incentive structure with our scientific ideals. The newly founded journal promotes investigations of previously published claims, which we refer to as repeatability research. We discuss the prerequisites for founding R2, the timeline from inception of the idea to its first publications, the core principles guiding our work, the mechanisms that ensure quality assurance, and the conceptual, technical, and practical challenges that we faced. Depending on the success of Replication Research, this case study may serve either as a blueprint or a cautionary tale for other researchers trying to shift academic incentives and the publication culture.