Pilot programme encourages researchers to share the code behind their work

New project, partly designed by a University of Cambridge researcher, aims to improve transparency in science by sharing 'how the sausage is made'. Having the code means that others have a better chance of replicating your work. Stephen Eglen A new pilot project, designed by a Cambridge researcher and supported by the Nature family of journals, will evaluate the value of sharing the code behind published research. For years, scientists have discussed whether and how to share data from painstaking research and costly experiments. Some are further along in their efforts toward 'open science' than others: fields such as astronomy and oceanography, for example, involve such expensive and large-scale equipment and logistical challenges to data collection that collaboration among institutions has become the norm. Recently, academic journals, including several Nature journals, are turning their attention to another aspect of the research process: computer programming code. Code is becoming increasingly important in research because scientists are often writing their own computer programs to interpret their data, rather than using commercial software packages.