The background of this project is the frequent lack of reproducibility in empirical research. This is not only open to criticism from a scientific standpoint but can also lead to misguided economic and societal decisions, thereby carrying real-world consequences. To reduce such avoidable discrepancies, a reproducibility engine will be used to systematically assess the results of empirical studies.
The pilot study is primarily intended to develop clear workflows, test the technical feasibility and gather typical sources of error as well as necessary interventions. The Journal of Accounting Research (JAR), which features a particularly extensive repository structure, serves as the databases for the LLM. Based on this data, an engine is developed that automatically captures replication packages and prepares corresponding verification workflows. The result is a standardized assessment of reproducibility: this immediately reveals whether the data and code have been compiled in a sufficiently transparent manner to allow the study to be independently replicated. This will allow weaknesses to be identified early on and resolved permanently through revision.
Once the engine has been successfully developed, the components will first be publicly made accessible, and the reproducibility results will be published. These results will also serve as a basis for an international grant proposal, aimed at further expanding the engine and thereby enabling an interdisciplinary application in the future.
The DSC Seed Grant thereby specifically supports the methodological piloting in the JAR setting. Whilst this project performs reproducibility audits within this specific framework in the short term, it lays the groundwork for a scalable, widely applicable engine. The focus here is on the technical feasibility of LLM-supported agent-based workflows: The study examines which steps can already be reliably automated and where manual intervention is still necessary.
Funding recipients:
Benedikt Plate (Faculty 07 – Business Studies and Economics)
Janik Wecks (Faculty 07 – Business Studies and Economics)
Funding period:
1st April 2026 – 31st March 2027
Are you interested in the DSC Seed Grant?
You can find more information about the DSC Seed Grant here.
For questions, please contact:
Dr. Lena Steinmann
DSC Coordinator
Tel. +49 (421) 218 - 63941
E-Mail: lena.steinmannprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
