Replication and reproducibility in spinal cord injury research

This special issue of Experimental Neurology compiles a series of papers that either explicitly replicate published studies or retest phenomena reported in previous publications. The explicit replications were carried out as part of the "Facilities of Research Excellence-Spinal Cord Injury" (FORE-SCI) program launched by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in 2003. Here, we review the FORE-SCI replication experiments published prior to those in this special issue. We then discuss emerging issues regarding replication and reproducibility in spinal cord injury research, especially in terms of potential translation to clinical trials.