Sharing data and code facilitates reproducible and impactful research

Abstract

Modern research often involves the collection or analysis of data and the use of specialized computer algorithms. Traditional text articles thus provide only partial documentation of a research study. Readers have limited ability to reproduce or utilize work if the source data are not available or if it relies on an algorithm that is described, but code is not provided. Fortunately, a wide variety of tools are now available to support the publication of research data and code. The effort required to publish data is now relatively small, and the benefits can be immense. This opinion article discusses trends toward increased sharing in academic publishing. It describes opportunities and resources to support data and code sharing and describes the benefits for both authors and readers. Finally, it discusses how Earthquake Spectra is providing resources and enhancing its policies to establish the sharing of data as the default procedure when publishing in the journal, and encourage the sharing of code and other resources.