Neil Chue Hong:
I've talked to the SoftwareX editors previously, and I think we agree
that actually the tricky thing here is providing the right tools to
make reviewing software easier, and that's something where publishers
can certainly make improvements.
Greg Wilson:
I believe that if we want scientists to start doing code reviews, we
have to persuade them to do those reviews *as the code is being
written*, in the same way that most open source projects do it - i.e.,
we have to get them to review small incremental patches as they're
written, so that (a) authors can fix problems before they waste time
using the code, and (b) the effort required is as small as possible. If
this is right, changes to tooling alone aren't going to help - instead,
publishers should focus their efforts on changing the review process so
that it runs in parallel with coding and analysis, rather than afterward.
C. Titus Brown:
I agree with everything up until the last sentence, which I don't see
possibly working ever no way no how are you kidding what?
But, rather than leaving things at that unhelpful statement, here's a helpful
suggestion :)
What about drawing an analogy to the pregistered study model --
https://osf.io/8mpji/wiki/home/?_ga=1.189671019.1900172679.1438548591
and basically saying that software publications are virtually guaranteed
if the *methodology* of software development is reviewed as part of an
initial submission? Then sometime later (after the software has reached
most of its specified milestones) the publication can happen with only
grammatical review of the writeup.
In other words, check the way the software was developed, rather than
the software itself? Interesting - what pilot study could we do in 2016
to see if this actually achieves what we want?
It doesn't necessarily work for early stage software projects where the success
or failure of the basic idea is in question, but I'd certainly do that for my
lab's current software effort (khmer & screed) and my next project
(tentatively named buoy).
Sure - we don't check every bottle of aspirin that comes off the
assembly line, but rather the assembly line itself. I like it.
- Greg
--
Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected]
Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
