Reproducible Research, Replicability, and Ethical Practice

• Activity Number: 204
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Consulting
• Author(s): Ronald Thisted*+
• Companies: University of Chicago
• Keywords: Reproducibility ; Open science ; Investigator degrees of freedom ; Version control ; Workflow ; Replication

Abstract

Statistical scientists owe ethical duties to each other, to the investigators with whom we collaborate, to the statistics profession, and to the public at large. We outline specific duties that bear on reproducibility and replication. We demonstrate how incorporating specific principles of reproducible research into daily collaborative practice can enhance our ability to meet some of those obligations. We also examine steps that can be taken in the design and implementation of clinical and translational studies that increase the likelihood that those studies' results can successfully be replicated--an important duty that we owe to the public and to the scientific enterprise.