Toward Long-Term and Archivable Reproducibility

TL;DR

This paper proposes criteria for long-term, sustainable reproducibility of analysis pipelines, introduces Maneage as a proof-of-concept implementation, and demonstrates that longevity can be achieved without sacrificing short-term reproducibility.

Contribution

It defines a set of criteria for durable reproducibility and presents Maneage, a system enabling long-term archiving and verification of scientific analyses.

Findings

Maneage supports cheap archiving and provenance extraction.

Longevity does not compromise short-term reproducibility.

The approach is tested in multiple research publications.

Abstract

Analysis pipelines commonly use high-level technologies that are popular when created, but are unlikely to be readable, executable, or sustainable in the long term. A set of criteria is introduced to address this problem: Completeness (no execution requirement beyond a minimal Unix-like operating system, no administrator privileges, no network connection, and storage primarily in plain text); modular design; minimal complexity; scalability; verifiable inputs and outputs; version control; linking analysis with narrative; and free and open source software. As a proof of concept, we introduce "Maneage" (Managing data lineage), enabling cheap archiving, provenance extraction, and peer verification that has been tested in several research publications. We show that longevity is a realistic requirement that does not sacrifice immediate or short-term reproducibility. The caveats (with proposed solutions) are then discussed and we conclude with the benefits for the various stakeholders. This article is itself a Maneage'd project (project commit 54e4eb2).