Abstract

The replication crisis in the 2010s shook the scientific community, causing widespread concern and scepticism. In response, a new wave of optimistic researchers has turned the scientific lens inward, aiming to improve science itself. These metascientists have made progress in diagnosing the crisis, pinpointing questionable research practices and bad statistics as key culprits, and proposing reforms to statistical methods and publication practices. While the term ‘metascience’ is not new, its institutionalization as a discipline is a recent development. A growing community of practitioners, societies, conferences, and research centres now shape this expanding field. This growth raises compelling philosophical questions: Where did metascience come from? How does metascience relate to established fields like philosophy of science and science studies? Is metascience merely about data collection, or does it offer deeper epistemic insights? This talk explores these questions by proposing a taxonomy of metascientific projects, examining models of how scientific disciplines form, and evaluating whether metascience holds a unique epistemic status.