Including Data Management in Research Culture Increases the Reproducibility of Scientific Results

Abstract

Reproducible research results are among the pillars of sustainable science, and considerable progress has been achieved in this direction recently. However, there is much room for improvement across the research communities. Here we analyze the reproducibility of 108 publications from an interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center on applied mathematics in various scientific fields. Based on a previous reproducibility study in hydrology, we identify the rate of reproducible scientific results and why reproducibility fails. We identify the main problems that hinder reproducible results and relate them to previous interventions targeting the research culture of reproducible scientific findings. Thus, the success of our measures can be estimated, and specific recommendations for future work can be derived. In our study, the number of publications that allow for at least partly reproducible research results increased over time. However, we see an ongoing need for directives and support in research data management among research communities since issues concerning data accessibility and quality limit the reproducibility of scientific results. We argue that our results are representative of other interdisciplinary research areas.