Patterns (Sep 2020)
Reproducibility Starts from You Today
Abstract
Summary: Who hasn't yet heard about the debates on research reproducibility, or, perhaps even more, about the research reproducibility crisis? There have been numerous papers in the past several years discussing reproducibility issues in research. In addition, funders, publishers, and research institutions followed policies aiming at increasing research reproducibility. But what does it mean in practice for research to be reproducible? And where does one start in this flood of information, tools, and requirements? In this article, we aim to help researchers improve the reproducibility of their work by providing simple tips and good practices that can be readily applied at different stages of the research life cycle. Reproducibility starts from you. Today! The Bigger Picture: In recent years, discussions about the reproducibility of scientific experiments have bloomed everywhere but have left researchers with either very high-level and unachievable goals or lost in a sea of recommendations. However, there are many small, simple steps that any researcher can take to improve the reproducibility of their results. Crucially, improving the reproducibility of one’s own research workflows offers numerous selfish benefits: not only making research more efficient (less time wasted!) but also increasing research impact and reach.This article is aimed at researchers and offers several simple recommendations that can result in incremental improvements to the reproducibility of research results.
