Documenting research in simulation science to enhance understanding for reusability

Abstract

One goal of Open Science is to promote reusability, which requires understanding and documentation. Reusability spans a spectrum from the straightforward reuse of existing materials to the extraction and adaptation of specific elements, depending on the maturity of the reused research and the research context. Beyond knowledge, understanding is crucial for enabling reusability. Simply reading an article is often insufficient; thus, publishing the underlying data and software is recommended. While the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) facilitate the discovery and legal reuse of data and software through metadata, they fall short of promoting comprehensive understanding. By applying insights from the epistemology of simulation to computational mechanics research cases, we tested our hypothesis that the simulation process involves critical components beyond software and data that are essential to understand for reuse. Our findings indicate that reusability in these cases predominantly involves adjusting existing methodologies—a combination of different process steps from an epistemological perspective. Therefore, it is imperative to document not only learned knowledge but also the decisions regarding adjustments, assumptions and applications that concern the entire simulation process. Documentation is vital for understanding and herby enabling true reusability in scientific research, aligning with philosophical considerations of transparency and the nature of scientific knowledge.

Keywords

• reusability
• documentation
• epistemology