[Go back to CHECK-NL main page]
Fun and fruitful: A successful workshop at Erasmus University Rotterdam!
Our third CHECK-NL workshop on the social and behavioural sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam was an engaging, supportive community event, made even better by our gracious host at EUR, Eduard Klapwijk, who kept us well fed, watered and caffeinated through the day, in addition to being active in the sessions as well.
The day began with an introduction from Stephen Eglen (co-founder CODECHECK), taking us through the concepts and steps of codecheck, and leading us through a live demo of a codecheck he had begun the previous evening on the train from London, which he successfully completed. Shortly thereafter, the three authors who had submitted their work to be codechecked briefly introduced their projects, and participants divided themselves up into three breakout groups, with two groups working with R and one with Python. All three groups completed successful codechecks, and also made some headway writing the certificates of executable computations. Have a look at the CODECHECK Register to see the newly published certificates from our workshop!
The reflection session is always a lively and engaging way to wrap up to the workshop, and this one did not disappoint. The breakout groups recapped their experiences of codechecking, and authors reflected on how codechecking often helps them re-evaluate their own assumptions. Other reflections focussed on the challenges of performing codechecks with sensitive or confidential data, a situation that many in our audience were all too familiar with, being from the social and behavioural sciences. Incentivising and growing the codechecking community is always an interesting part of the reflection, and answers ranged from monetary compensation and making it a job, to fame and glory (if only!).
We ended the session with a well-deserved borrel, a satisfying end to a productive day! Would you also like to be rewarded with bitterballen after a day of coding? Join our next workshop on 14 February at Leiden University! Find out more on the workshop page.
CALL FOR PAPERS/PRE-PRINTS/CODE: YOU can help increase reproducibility in the social sciences!
Are you from the social/behavioural sciences and interested in reproducible code and open science? We have the perfect opportunity for you!
As part of our NWO project CHECK-NL, we are looking for researchers from the social and behavioural sciences at a Dutch knowledge institution or university who would like their papers or projects to be “codechecked” during a live, one-day code-checking workshop on 28 November 2024. A codecheck is a light-touch independent peer review to check that your code and data can generate the computational results in your paper or project.
You can participate (a) by submitting your own work to be checked, (b) as a codechecker (that is, a person reviewing code as a participant in the workshop), or (c) both, if you are up for it! Read on to see how…
What do I get if I submit my code?
- A codechecker will work with you during the session to check whether your code and data can be run by others to generate the same or similar results.
- The codechecker will work with you to resolve any issues found during the code check, and make your code as reproducible as possible!
- Upon completion, your paper will receive a codecheck certificate that confirms your results could be reproduced. This can be shared, for instance, with potential journal editors, to enhance the visibility and reproducibility of your work.
By participating, you contribute towards making science more open and transparent AND increase the visibility of your own research!
Sounds good! What should I do?
Are you interested in participating in this event, and contribute to promoting code reproducibility? Send an email to codechecknl@gmail.com by 11 November 2024 with a brief description of your paper/project, and links to your code and data. This could be code related to:
- A paper that you have recently published
- A preprint that is publicly available
- Code and results files that have been or will be deposited in a repository, preferably GitHub or GitLab
In each case, the code and data underlying the paper should be openly available, or you plan to make them available once the paper is published.
Selected papers/projects will be notified in mid November 2024. All authors are invited to join the workshop.
What if I want to participate as a codechecker instead?
You can register to participate in the workshop on our eventbrite page, and volunteer to become a codechecker on 28th November. The event will be held in person on the EUR campus (see event page for details).
Why would I volunteer my time to codecheck other people’s work?
- You will learn how others ensure reproducibility of their work (and pick up tips for yourself)
- You will gain hands-on experience in peer reviewing code
- You will be contributing to more transparent science
PhD candiates at the Erasmus Graduate School for Social Sciences and the Humanities are eligible for 1.5 ECTS credit for participating in the workshop, see this page for more information.
Interested but still have questions? Ask us! Write to us at codechecknl@gmail.com, we are happy to answer any questions!