May 14, 2015
Tagline: Accelerating scientific progress through reproducible science
Mission: To train researchers in the best practices and approaches of reproducible research and accelerate scientific progress.
Before coffee break:
After coffee break:
with respect to reproducibility
Examples of irreproducible research has caused significant issues
From the authors of Low Dose Lidocaine for Refractory Seizures in Preterm Neonates:
“The article has been retracted at the request of the authors. After carefully re-examining the data presented in the article, they identified that data of two different hospitals got terribly mixed. The published results cannot be reproduced in accordance with scientific and clinical correctness.”
The authors of a paper showing a link between immune response and depression requested a retraction after they realized they'd merged two spreadsheets with mismatching ID codes.
Original conclusion: Lower levels of CSF IL-6 were associated with current depression and with future depression […].
Revised conclusion: Higher levels of CSF IL-6 and IL-8 were associated with current depression […].
This is a two-part exercise:
Part 1: Analyze + document
Part 2: Swap + discuss
Complete the following tasks and write instructions/documentation for your collaborator to reproduce your work starting with the original dataset (
Visualize life expectancy over time for Canada in the 1950s and 1960s using a line plot.
Stretch goal: Add lines for Mexico and US.
Visualize the relationship between GDP and life expectancy for countries in Europe in 1952.
Stretch goal: Add a line for 1967 in another color.
Introduce yourself to your collaborator and tell them why you're here.
Swap instructions/documentation with your collaborator, and try to reproduce their work without talking to each oher. If your collaborator does not have the software they need to reproduce your work, we encourage you to either help them install it or walk them through it on your computer in a way that would emulate the experience.
Then, talk to each other about challenges you faced (or didn't face) or why you were or weren't able to reproduce their work.
What tools did you use (Excel / R / Word / plain text etc.)?
Was your collaborator successful in reproducing your work?