We would like to highlight a particular issue that affects the Mathematical Biology community, and the scientific community in general: reproducibility in scientific research. We view this issue of the newsletter as an opportunity to bring this topic to your attention and begin a forum for an open dialogue about reproducibility.
The official journal of SMB, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, recently published a special issue on reproducibility. The issue includes an editorial and five perspectives.
- Editorial: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0501-8
- Perspectives:
- Issues in Reproducible Simulation Research; by: Ben G. Fitzpatrick
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0496-1
- Reproducible Research Using Biomodels; by: Pedro Mendes
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0498-z
- The Crisis of Reproducibility, the Denominator Problem and the Scientific Role of Multi-scale Modeling; by: Gary An
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0497-0
- “Reproducible” Research in Mathematical Sciences Requires Changes in our Peer Review Culture and Modernization of our Current Publication Approach; by: Santiago Schnell
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0500-9
- Problems with the Current Approach to the Dissemination of Computational Science Research and Its Implications for Research Integrity; by: David Gavaghan
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-018-0499-y
To accompany our highlight of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology articles on reproducibility, we provide an interview with Herbert Sauro. Dr. Sauro is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Principal Investigator of the Biological Control Systems, Modeling, and Software Laboratory at the University of Washington. He is also part of the team leading the NIH-funded Center for Reproducible Biomedical Modeling (CRBM).
The goal of the Center is to “enable larger and more accurate systems biology models, as well as their applications to science, bioengineering, and medicine, by enhancing their understandability, reusability, and reproducibility.” Thus, Dr. Sauro provides a knowledgeable and much needed perspective on the issue of reproducibility in the context of mathematical biology. This article is a summary of our conversation:
