[From the website The Edge] The question is: “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?” Stanford Associate Professor BRIAN KNUTSON’s answer is: “Replication.”  He suggests that a more meaningful measure of positive scientific impact is a Replication Index, or “r-factor.”  This would measure the extent to which a researcher’s results could be independently confirmed.  To boost their “r-factors”, researchers would be incentivized to make their work more transparent, making it easier for others to confirm their results.  To read more, click here.