Indeed. My research (in statistics) is primarily methodological: I invent and describe methods that might be useful, and on a good day prove some theoretical results demonstrating that they might be useful. There's nothing to replicate there.
Citations can be a useful metric here, particularly if you can identify citations of people actually using the method (as opposed to people just mentioning it in passing, or other methodological researchers comparing their own methods to it).
Citations can be a useful metric here, particularly if you can identify citations of people actually using the method (as opposed to people just mentioning it in passing, or other methodological researchers comparing their own methods to it).