What is reproducable research?

• Reproducability:
  • Being able to conduct the same study with the same data on your own device

What is reproducible research (RR)?

• Replicability:
  • Being able to conduct the same study again (with new data) 

• Research that is both 'replicable' and 'reproducable'

• New research is based on previous research
  • Determines how we interpret new data
  • Determines which studies we conduct

• Reproducible Research ensures that we can confirm, verify and extend our results

Importance

Why is it important for you?

• Its practice for your future research
  • BA/MA theses, term papers
  • Reproducing research is a popular BA/MA thesis format

• Principles of it extend to all (team) projects, no matter the job 

• You read papers
  • You want them to be available & comprehensible
  • You can learn more from them if they are more transparent  

How do you make your research reproducible?

• Make your code and your data publicly available
  • Upload your code and data where it is free to access (GitHub, OSF)
  • Choose a free, platform-independent software to make your analysis

• The more documentation, the better reproducible your code
  • e.g. with R Markdown, Jupyter Notebooks

making your code public

• You are probably not the only one!
• Keep in mind that most people (especially in academia/phil fak.) are not from the informatics department

• Publishing code lets you claim precedence, there is a date on your release and its clear what's yours

• Better to know and be able to re-evaluate your results
• Not publishing code that ends up containing an error seems more suspicious

R-studio &

R Markdown

How does R Markdown help us?

• R-studio, R and Markdown are free
• Works on all operating systems

• It makes documentation very easy
  • Text blocks and code blocks in one document
  • Can be exported to slides, pdf, html ......
  • Allows to run code incrementally  

Try it out!

https://pad.hhu.de/

https://github.com/hedgedoc/hedgedoc/blob/develop/docs/content/images/hedgedoc_logo_black.svg

Log in with uni credentials!

Code blocks

About codeblocks:

• Can be executed like in a script
• Information is stored over all blocks in the document 
• Can take options to surpress output, load data, ... 

# Heading 1

** bold text **

* italic text *

- bullet point 1

- bullet point 2

Markdown Formatting

Syntax

Output

## Heading 2

### Heading 3

Coding language for formatting text. 

MARKDOWN file Example

Markdown in R-studio

Structuring your

reproducible project

Folder Structure

• A reproducible project starts at how you organize your files and folders

Let's look at this more in depth

/

/

/

README.md

• Helps reader/collaborator/future-you to understand your project better
  • Describes folder structure
  • Describes statistical analysis process
  • ...
• File extension: '.md'  

For example:

Open-science framework

(OSF)

• OSF is a web-based platform supporting collaborative research
• Facilitates transparency, reproducible, and collaboration in research.
• Project organization, version control, collaboration tools.

Introduction to OSF

• Step-by-Step Account Creation:
  • Navigate to osf.io.
  • Click "Sign Up" and complete the registration form.
  • Verify your email address.

Creating an OSF account

• Creating a New Project on OSF:
  • Click "Create Project" and fill in project details.
• Adding Components for Organization:
  • Components are like folders for different aspects of your project (e.g., data, code, documentation).
• Project Visibility and Access Settings:
  • Choose between public, private, or shared settings.

setting up a project

• Adding Files to OSF Project:
  • Click "Add a Component" or "Upload" to add files.
• Uploading Existing scripts:
  • Drag and drop or use the upload button.
• Creating new files on OSF:
  • Use the online editor or upload from your local machine.

Uploading Projects

• Overview of OSF's Online Editor:
  • Accessible through the OSF platform.
  • Allows real-time editing and collaboration.
• Real-time Editing and Collaboration Features:
  • Multiple collaborators can edit simultaneously.
  • Changes are tracked in the history.

editing code online

• Inviting Collaborators to Your Project:
  • Add collaborators by their OSF usernames or email addresses.
• Managing Permissions and Access Levels:
  • Define read, write, or admin access for each collaborator.
  • Ensure proper access to maintain project integrity.

collaborating on Osf