[From the preprint “A Model-Centric Analysis of Openness, Replication, and Reproducibility”, by Bert Baumgaertner, Berna Devezer, Erkan Buzbas, and Luis Nardin, posted at arXiv.org]

“In order to clearly specify the conditions under which we may or may not obtain reproducible results, we present a formalization of the concepts of replication and reproducibility. Our main insight from this formalization is that there are some impediments to obtaining reproducible results that precede many of the erroneous practices often cited in the literature as causes of the reproducibility crisis.”

“Hitherto, the literature on the reproducibility crisis has lacked a formal analysis of the conditions under which we can expect to have reproducible results. We show that some aspects of the scientific process, particularly those related to openness of critical components of an experiment, cannot prevent irreproducibility, even if other sources of error are absent. Thus, a failure to reproduce a scientific result is not necessarily due to some methodological or cultural practice which deviates from some ideal notion of science.”

To read the article, click here.