How Many Times Should an Experiment be Replicated?

Abstract

An important decision in any problem of experimental design is to determine how many times an experiment should be replicated. Note that we are referring to the internal replication of an experiment. Generally, the more it is replicated, the more accurate the results of the experiment will be. However, resources tend to be limited, which places constraints on the number of replications. In this chapter, we will consider several methods for determining the best number of replications for a given experiment. We will focus on one-factor designs, but the general-purpose methodology can be extended to more complex experimental situations.