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No code neededNo code neededPosted May 24, 2012 15:17 UTC (Thu) by nybble41 (subscriber, #55106)In reply to: No code needed by raven667 Parent article: A scientific basis for Open Source Software
It seems to me that in a study of this kind there are two aspects to reproducibility: the raw data, and the analysis performed by the software. By including both the raw data and the actual software used in the original study, you make it possible to check each part separately. Without the original software, it's difficult to say whether any differences in the processed results are due to problems with the original software, problems with the reimplementation, or differences in the input.
Having the original software for comparison also makes it easier to guarantee that the results can be reproduced with a different _style_ of implementation; otherwise, not knowing how the original software was implemented, you might end up recreating it the same way, with the same built-in flaws. If the software is included you can deliberately choose a different approach.
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No code needed Posted May 24, 2012 15:35 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] There is also gradual improvement of results, which has been a tenet of science for many centuries. A first researcher publishes their basic results, a second researcher publishes their enhancements, the next one publishes a refinement in certain conditions... In these days of computer simulations it becomes essential to have both data and software, as you say, and improve on them gradually. Otherwise research papers become just a lot of hand-waving around estimations and algorithms.
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