"Scientific computation is emerging as absolutely central to the scientific method, but the prevalence of very relaxed practices is leading to a credibility crisis affecting many scientific fields. It is impossible to verify most of the results that computational scientists present at conferences and in papers today. Reproducible computational research, in which all details of computations — code and data — are made conveniently available to others, is a necessary response to this crisis.”

This was the rationale for a recent symposium on the digitization of science, led by Dr Victoria Stodden, Editorial Board member of Open Research Computation, which is now accepting submissions. At the symposium, fellow Editorial Board member Dr Fernando Perez discussed how scientists can learn from the open source community to make all computational research data more reproducible, and Dr Stodden addressed the legal implications of sharing data, proposing open licensing as the solution.

This symposium complements the aims of Open Research Computation, a journal that has high standards for data availability and reproducibility. A requirement for submission is that all software source code must be made available under an Open Source Initiative compliant license. Journals like Open Research Computation that have strict requirements for the availability of source materials – software source code – can help shape the way for a more reproducible future in computational research. Read more about the journal’s aims and scope on the journal website.