Definition of common standards and practices for research reproducibility

Repeated research is an important part of scientific methodology. Repeating or replicating research not only brings an independent perspective to the investigation, but also provides a basis for comparing different approaches and extending known results. The process of repeating others’ research also allows us to learn, not only from their insights but also their experimental methodology. Replication is thus an important facet of scientific debate. Up until recently repeating computer science research, while desirable in principle, was often difficult in practice. This is due to several well-identified factors such as the lack of incentives (e.g., in publication venues) that value such effort, lack of common research platforms and tools, and the difficulty of packaging the requisite digital artifacts in an easily shareable form and the mechanisms to combine and publish them. Change is needed. SLICES, now on the ESFRI 2021 roadmap, ambitions to develop a framework to cope with the full research life-cycle. We are designing a solution for aligning with the best practices used in Open Science as well as an articulation with the EOSC initiative. We present our preliminary thoughts and solutions to deals with open data and reproducible research, as well as relevant initiatives from other testbeds and relevant standardization efforts. A progressive approach will be taken with the goal to embed a native and robust solution that will align with the best practices adopted in other fields. In addition, international cooperation will be researched in order to support a common methodology across facilities.