Organize a ReproHack with us!

What is a ReproHack?

A ReproHack (short for Reproducible Hackathon) is a workshop event that usually takes place for one day and has been held in different locations since 2016. The code base for this format can be found on GitHub, while the community is active on Twitter and Slack. Since November 2021, a new ReproHack Hub website has also been created, which makes it easier to select papers and submit reviews.

During a ReproHack, participants attempt to reproduce published research of their choice from a list of proposed articles with publicly available code and data.

Participants work alone or in groups at their own pace and document their experiences on a number of key issues, including reproducibility, transparency and reusability of materials. At the end of the workshop, the experiences are shared and given to the authors as feedback.

In science, reproducibility or replicability in general has a high priority. It means the repeatability of empirical-scientific research results. Only when a finding is reproducible and a replication study comes to similar, if not the same results, does the first study gain credibility. Authors who provide their own replication paper receive useful feedback, while participants generally receive helpful learning experiences for their own research and publications.

Past events

In cooperation with other institutions, the following ReproHack events have been organized so far.

 

Organizing a ReproHack together

Unfortunately, a ReproHack does not plan itself, which is why we are calling on research institutions which may want to organize a ReproHack together or contribute participants/papers. Our first ReproHack was conducted in May 2021 in cooperation with the Open Reproducible Data Science and Statistics group (ORDS) at the University of Rostock. Organizing a ReproHack together might make sense if:

  • There is a general interest in organizing a ReproHack. A list of previously submitted research results with underlying data and code can be viewed here.

  • There is some basic knowledge of programming languages. Languages ​​such as R, Python or Julia are often used for the reproducibility of research results from raw data. However, if both the languages ​​themselves and their possible working environments are not yet well established at research institutions, the ReproHack could begin with a brief introductory course into these languages followed by using them to attempt to reproduce a research paper.

  • Your research institution already has knowledge of various applicable languages, the transferability of code to other languages ​​can be tested for reproducibility. For example, a given script in R can be transferred to Python to see whether the same research results can be achieved there.

  • There may already be external data sets or research results in the research facility that cannot be reused for various reasons. In that case we can contact the authors and create a repro hack for these materials. It is also possible to evaluate publications, codes and data sets from your institution.

If one or more points apply to your research institution, we can organize a ReproHack together. Of course, you can also make your own suggestions. If you are interested, simply contact us by email at: info@forschungsdaten-thueringen.de (keyword: ReproHack)