alt Hacker News> Prerequisite required by who, and why is that entity motivated to design such a requirement?
Grant awarding institutions like the NIH and NSF presumably? The NSF has as one of its functions, “to develop and encourage the pursuit of a national policy for the promotion of basic research and education in the sciences”. Encouraging the replication of research as part of graduate degree curricula seems to fall within bounds. And the government’s interest in science isn’t novelty per se, it’s the creation and dissemination of factually correct information that can be useful to its constituents.
The commenter I was replying to wanted it to be a prerequisite for a degree, not for a grant. Grant awarding institutions also have to justify their spending to other parts of government and/or parliament (specifically, politicians). Both politicians and the public want to see breakthrough results that have the potential to cure cancer and whatnot. They want to boast that their funding contributed to winning some big-name prize and so on. You have to think with the mind of specific people in specific positions and what makes them look good, what gets them praise, promotions and friends.
> And the government’s interest in science isn’t novelty per se, it’s the creation and dissemination of factually correct information that can be useful to its constituents.
This sounds very naive.