 If replication played such an essential or distinguishing role in science, we might expect it to be a prominent theme in the history of science. Steinle (2016) considers the extent to which it is such a theme. He presents a variety of cases from the history of science where replication played very different roles, although he understands “replication” narrowly to refer to when an experiment is re-run by different researchers. He claims that the role and value of replication in experimental replication is “much more complex than easy textbook accounts make us believe” (2016: 60), particularly since each scientific inquiry is always tied to a variety of contextual considerations that can affect the importance of replication. Such considerations include the relationship between experimental results and the background of accepted theory at the time, the practical and resource constraints on pursuing replication and the perceived credibility of the researchers. These contextual factors, he claims, mean that replication was a key or even overriding determinant of acceptance of research claims in some cases, but not in others.