Best Practices for Replicability, Reproducibility and Reusability of Computer-Based Experiments Exemplified by Model Reduction Software
This addresses the issue of unreliable computational results in scientific computing and applied mathematics, but it is incremental as it builds on existing guidelines.
The paper tackles the problem of insufficient documentation in numerical experiments by proposing standards and best practices for setup and publication, aiming to enable replicability, reproducibility, and reusability of research software.
Over the recent years the importance of numerical experiments has gradually been more recognized. Nonetheless, sufficient documentation of how computational results have been obtained is often not available. Especially in the scientific computing and applied mathematics domain this is crucial, since numerical experiments are usually employed to verify the proposed hypothesis in a publication. This work aims to propose standards and best practices for the setup and publication of numerical experiments. Naturally, this amounts to a guideline for development, maintenance, and publication of numerical research software. Such a primer will enable the replicability and reproducibility of computer-based experiments and published results and also promote the reusability of the associated software.