Inadequacies in the conduct and quality of research are well established across many research domains, including sport science and medicine. Metaresearch - the practice of performing research on research - is presented as a practical vehicle for improving research quality through evaluating the research processes. This article introduces the concept of metaresearch to sport as a new sub-field of sport science. The broad types of metaresearch are introduced, with a mapping of current sports metaresearch activity across these areas. Interdisciplinary centres aimed at improving scientific quality across other fields are also introduced to sport, and specific considerations for beginning metaresearch are provided for sport. This includes, for example, not performing metaresearch poorly, beginning evaluative metaresearch early to intervene before bad practice becomes normalised, leveraging required interdisciplinary expertise depending on the metaresearch question and undertaking an ethical approach for carrying out evaluation of research quality. Key Points: Metaresearch plays an important function in the evaluation and monitoring of research, which highlights potential problems with the literature base within a field and provides the research community with the ability to make better informed judgements on the implementation of study findings. Metaresearch can also be used as a vehicle for identifying specific issues that are present within disciplines of research, which can then be used to develop specific solutions through integration with other fields of research and disciplines.
© Copyright 2025 Sports Medicine. Springer. All rights reserved.