Ch. 2 What is reproducible science?

2.1 Activity: Thought Exercise

  • What does reproducible science mean to you?
  • Which tools have you previously used?
  • Which tools are you most excited to learn?

2.2 What is reproducible science?

Making entire scientific process transparent (when and as allowable by law, grants).

  • Sharing experiment and analysis code
  • Detailed methods sections
  • Sharing stimulus sets
  • Being able to walk through a data analysis start (load raw data) to finish (manuscript analyses) in code
  • Following FAIR Principles
  • Pre-registering hypotheses and analysis plans (e.g., on OSF)

2.2.1 Benefits of Reproducible Research

Sourced from: https://www.displayr.com/what-is-reproducible-research

  • increased likelihood that the research will be correct
  • reproducibility makes it easier to check the research
  • it is easier to reproduce the research independently
  • easier to extend the research
  • reusable code and instruction resulting in increased efficiencies

2.2.2 Reproducible vs Replicable

  • Reproducible: when the exact results can be reproduced if given access to the original data, software, or code
  • Replicable: research results can be reproduced by independent researchers using different methods.

2.3 FAIR Principles

  • F: Findable: “The first step in (re)using data is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers. Machine-readable metadata are essential for automatic discovery of datasets and services”

  • A: Accessible: “Once the user finds the required data, she/he/they need to know how they can be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation.”

  • I: Interoperable: “The data usually need to be integrated with other data. In addition, the data need to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing.”

  • R: Reusable: “The ultimate goal of FAIR is to optimise the reuse of data. To achieve this, metadata and data should be well-described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings.”

  • Learn more about the FAIR Principles

  • FAIR Principles Info PDF