[Lingtyp] ALT 2024 workshop proposal on replication & reproducibility

[Laura Becker]

Dear colleagues,

We are planning to submit a workshop proposal for the next ALT 
conference from 8-10 November, 2024 in Zhuhai, China. The title of the 
workshop will be "*Replication & reproducibility in quantitative 
typology*". For a brief description, see below.

To submit the proposal, we would like to include a list of potential 
participants. At this point, you would only express your interest, it is 
not a commitment to participate in the workshop. If you are interested, 
please send an email with your *name* and *affiliation* to 
laura.becker at linguistik.uni-freiburg.de by *November 18, 2023*.

Best,

Laura Becker
Frederik Hartmann
Matías Guzmán Naranjo


--------------------------------

*Workshop description*

Reproducibility, especially comparing methods rather than new samples, 
has played a relatively minor role in quantitative typology so far. 
While some of the more high-profile studies (e.g. Atkinson 2011, Chen 
2013, Everett 2017, Maddieson 2018) have received further attention, 
including methodological discussions (Hartmann 2022, Cysouw, Michael, 
Dan Dediu & Steven Moran 2012, Roberts, Winters & Chen 2015), many 
typological studies are never replicated. Additionally, our field still 
lacks common standards for replication and testing reproducibility, and 
most replication studies use different data as well as methods compared 
to the original studies. Similarly, there is no consensus and little 
discussion on how we should generally think about studies which fail to 
(partially) replicate with other datasets, methods, or both.

In this workshop, we want to promote the discussion on new developments 
and challenges related to replication and reproducibility of typological 
studies.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  * Replication studies using identical methods as the original study,
    but a different dataset
  * Replication studies using an identical dataset as the original
    study, but different methods
  * Discussions on how to deal with studies which fail to replicate
  * Discussions relating to the robustness of result and uncertainty in
    typological studies
  * Replication of low-profile or low-stakes typological studies
  * Current challenges for replicability and reproducibility of
    linguistic results, including data transparency


References:

Atkinson, Quentin D. 2011. Phonemic diversity supports a serial founder 
effect model of language expansion from Africa. Science 332. 346–349.

Chen, Keith. 2013. The effect of language on economic behavior: Evidence 
from savings rates, health behaviors, and retirement assets. American 
Economic Review 103(2). 690–731.

Cysouw, Michael, Dan Dediu & Steven Moran. 2012. Comment on “Phonemic 
diversity supports a serial founder effect model of language expansion 
from Africa”. Science 335(6069). 657–657.

Everett, Caleb. 2017. Languages in drier climates use fewer vowels. 
Frontiers in Psychology 8. 1285.

Hartmann, Frederik. 2022. Methodological problems in quantitative 
research on environmental effects in phonology. Journal of Language 
Evolution 7(1). 95–119.

Maddieson, Ian. 2018. Language adapts to environment: Sonority and 
temperature. Frontiers in Communication 3.

Roberts, Seán, James Winters & Keith Chen. 2015. Future tense and 
economic decisions: Controlling for cultural evolution. PLOS ONE 10(7). 
e0132145.
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