Importance of experimental replication

Sufficient replication is required in scientific experiments. Understanding the statistical term, degrees of freedom, can be helpful in ensuring sufficient replication.

The minimum number of degrees of freedom required for an experimental design to be considered adequate is usually understood to be 12 (Anonymous, 2012). However, this should be increased if there is significant variation in the variables measured (low precision). For most biological experiments the minimum residual degrees of freedom required is considered to be 15.

Calculator for determining the number of replications of an experiment required to achieve the desired degrees of freedom

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Number of treatments used

Degrees of freedom

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How to cite this article

Mullan, W.M.A. (2021) [On-line] Available from: Accessed:

Importance of experimental replication

Further reading

Calculator for determining the number of replications of an experiment required to achieve the desired degrees of freedom