Reproducibility is integral to science, but difficult to achieve. We surveyed 560 empirical publications, published between 1955 and 2018 in the social learning literature, a research topic that spans animal behaviour, behavioural ecology, cultural evolution, and evolutionary psychology. Data was recoverable online or through direct data requests for 30% of this sample. Moreover, data recovery declines exponentially with time since publication, halving every 6 years, and up to every 9 years for human experimental data. When data for a publication can be recovered, we estimate a high probability of subsequent data usability (87%), analytical clarity (97%), and agreement of published results with reproduced findings (96%). This corresponds to an overall rate of recovering data and reproducing results of 23%, largely driven by unavailability or incompleteness of data. We thus outline clear measures to improve reproducibility of research on the ecology and evolution of social behaviour.