One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
From the "Reproducibility and Replicability in Science" consensus report 2019

The National Institutes of Health and other grant funding institutions now require researchers to address rigor and reproducibility in a structured way before their applications are reviewed. These processes instituted will strengthen the rigor and transparency of the research and will improve the reproducibility and replicability of results.

For a good synopsis of the report quoted above, we recommend reading the 2019 article, "New report examines reproducibility and replicability in science."

 

Resources

Definitions

Tips for Reproducibility

One way to plan for reproducibility is to make sure your documentation includes the following information. Some of this will be implemented within your project directory structures which will improve the portability of the data, code, and scripts. See README Files for more best practices.

  1. Plan for reproducibility before you start: Write a study plan or set up an electronic lab notebook
     
  2. Keep track of things: Track changes using version control and structure code and analytic results for easy discovery, document everything in a README file, and include contextual information and details about data sets needed for discovery, access, use, and reuse
     
  3. Report your research transparently: Share your protocols and write manuscripts collaboratively
     
  4. Archive & share your materials: Share and license your research products, and when the research is complete, submit the data and code to an open data repository
     

Download the "Reproducibility Resources & Tools" handout compiled by Countway Library.