Sharing and organizing research products as R packages
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Sharing and organizing research products as R packages Matti Vuorre1
· Matthew J. C. Crump2
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract A consensus on the importance of open data and reproducible code is emerging. How should data and code be shared to maximize the key desiderata of reproducibility, permanence, and accessibility? Research assets should be stored persistently in formats that are not software restrictive, and documented so that others can reproduce and extend the required computations. The sharing method should be easy to adopt by already busy researchers. We suggest the R package standard as a solution for creating, curating, and communicating research assets. The R package standard, with extensions discussed herein, provides a format for assets and metadata that satisfies the above desiderata, facilitates reproducibility, open access, and sharing of materials through online platforms like GitHub and Open Science Framework. We discuss a stack of R resources that help users create reproducible collections of research assets, from experiments to manuscripts, in the RStudio interface. We created an R package, vertical, to help researchers incorporate these tools into their workflows, and discuss its functionality at length in an online supplement. Together, these tools may increase the reproducibility and openness of psychological science. Keywords Reproducibility · Research methods · R · Open data · Open science
Introduction Research projects produce experiments, data, analyses, manuscripts, posters, slides, stimuli and materials, computational models, and more. However, the potential added value of these products is not fully realized due to limited sharing and curating practices. Although more transparent communication of these research products has recently been encouraged (Houtkoop et al., 2018; Klein et al., 2018; Lindsay, 2017; Martone et al., 2018; Rouder, 2016; Rouder et al., 2019; Vanpaemel et al., 2015; Wicherts et al., 2006), these efforts often focus narrowly on sharing data (and sometimes analysis code). Further, the practical value of sharing is often limited by poor documentation, incompatible file formats, and lack of organization, resulting in low rates of The authors declare equal authorship. MV is funded by the Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age project funded by the Huo Family Foundation. Matti Vuorre
[email protected] 1
2
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3JS, UK Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklyn, NY 11210 USA
reproducibility1 (Hardwicke et al., 2018). Standardization of protocols for sharing would be beneficial, but such standards have not emerged, possibly due to the variance of research in psychology. Instead of developing another standard, we suggest borrowing existing standards and practices from software engineering. Specifically, the R package standard, with additional R authoring tools, provides a robust framework for organizing and sharing reproducible research products. Some advances in data-sharin
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