Compendium Packaging and Publication: Glossary

It is important to package research artifacts into a research compendium that uses a logical file folder structure and standard file naming conventions to enable others to make sense of the files and the functional relationships among them.

The TIER Protocol is a useful framework for organizing compendium files that supports four essential computational reproducibility standards: sufficiency, soup-to-nuts, portability, and (almost) one-click reproducibility.

Research is a non-linear process that often requires frequent file revisions. Version control is critical to ensure that the files included in the compendium are the precise ones that can be used to reproduce reported results.

Placing scientific materials into the public domain to maximize the potential for scientific reproducibility is ideal; however, there may be legal, ethical, and/or professional reasons that unrestricted sharing of the materials is not appropriate.

Licenses remove the impediment of strict copyright laws while still providing a legal framework for enforcing conditions for use of research artifacts.

While there are many different licenses available, it is important to select the license that is most appropriate for the particular artifact based on its type and the conditions under which the artifact can be used.

The CoreTrustSeal certification is one of the benchmarks that denotes trustworthy repositories where researchers can safely store and share their compendium packages.

Researchers can choose disciplinary, generalist, or institutional repositories to store their compendium packages.

If your repository of choice does not have the CoreTrustSeal certification, that does not necessarily mean that it is not considered trustworthy. You can still evaluate the trustworthiness of a repository through the CoreTrustSeal’s 16 requirements.

When putting together compendium packages, researchers should be aware of any restricted, proprietary, or complex computing materials they are working with.

Restricted materials cannot be fully released to the public due to the high risk they can pose.

Proprietary materials are those which are not owned by the researcher, and generally cannot be shared publicly.

Complex computing materials such as software may require additional considerations when included in compendium packages, such as documentation outlining its development and use.

When working with any of these special cases, researchers should allow for extra time in their process of compiling their compendium packages to ensure they are balancing reproducibility goals with proper precautions.