Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE)

The Department of Defense (DoD) often leverages social and behavioral science (SBS) research to design plans, guide investments, assess outcomes, and build models of human social systems and behaviors as they relate to national security challenges in the human domain. However, a number of recent empirical studies and meta-analyses have revealed that many SBS results vary dramatically in terms of their ability to be independently reproduced or replicated, which could have real-world implications for DoD’s plans, decisions, and models.

To help address this situation, DARPA’s Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE) program aims to develop and deploy automated tools to assign "confidence scores" to different SBS research results and claims. Confidence scores are quantitative measures that should enable a DoD consumer of SBS research to understand the degree to which a particular claim or result is likely to be reproducible or replicable. These tools will assign explainable confidence scores with a reliability that is equal to, or better than, the best current human expert methods.

If successful, SCORE will enable DoD personnel to quickly calibrate the level of confidence they should have in the reproducibility and replicability of a given SBS result or claim, and thereby increase the effective use of SBS literature and research to address important human domain challenges, such as enhancing deterrence, enabling stability, and reducing extremism.

>https://www.darpa.mil/program/systematizing-confidence-in-open-research-and-evidence

>https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/systematizing-confidence-in-open-research-and-evidence-proposers-day