Cited by 370Research Data Management PracticesScientific Computing and Data ManagementAcademic Publishing and Open Access

An empirical analysis of journal policy effectiveness for computational reproducibility

Open access
Stodden, Victoria, Seiler, Jennifer, Ma, Zhaokun·2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

A key component of scientific communication is sufficient information for other researchers in the field to reproduce published findings. For computational and data-enabled research, this has often been interpreted to mean making available the raw data from which results were generated, the computer code that generated the findings, and any additional information needed such as workflows and input parameters. Many journals are revising author guidelines to include data and code availability. This work evaluates the effectiveness of journal policy that requires the data and code necessary for reproducibility be made available postpublication by the authors upon request. We assess the effectiveness of such a policy by ( i ) requesting data and code from authors and ( ii ) attempting replication of the published findings. We chose a random sample of 204 scientific papers published in the journal Science after the implementation of their policy in February 2011. We found that we were able to obtain artifacts from 44% of our sample and were able to reproduce the findings for 26%. We find this policy—author remission of data and code postpublication upon request—an improvement over no policy, but currently insufficient for reproducibility.

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011) Science journals: Edi- torial Policies. Available at www.sciencemag.org/authors/science-journals-editorial- policies. Accessed September 11, 2011.
  2. Stodden V, Borwein JM, Bailey DH (2013) "Setting the default to reproducible' in Computational Science Research. SIAM News. Available at https://sinews.siam.org/ Aboutthe-Author/setting-the-default-to-reproducible-in-computational-science- research. Accessed February 16, 2018.

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Authors
Stodden, V., Seiler, J., & Ma, Z.
Affiliations
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • Columbia University (US)
Corresponding author
Stodden, Victoria
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2018-03-12
Volume
115
Issue
11
Pages
2584-2589
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2793993424
Cited by
369
References
26
Citations by year
2026: 45 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 26 · 2013: 1
FWCI
64.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Alfred P Sloan Foundation (PG004545)
  • National Science Foundation (1153384)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Research Data Management Practices
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Scientific Computing and Data Management
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
Keywords
computational reproducibility, editorial policy, data availability, code availability, replication, research artifacts, scientific journals, author guidelines

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