Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Scientific software reproducibility

Writing in Nature, Erika Check Hayden describes steps being taken by the journal Nature Biotechnology to improve the reproducibility of computational results.  She cites cases where error-prone software led to the publication of incorrect results in good journals.  Lack of software documentation seems to be one of the major issues; software testing and reproducibility were also mentioned.  The article also delves into the challenges faced by such a policy, such as finding qualified reviewers, and the danger of public shaming. 

DTLR feels that such challenges should not be allowed to block efforts to reform publication standards.  I endorse the stance taken by Nature Biotechnology, which can be found here

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