Documentation

Researchers document all information relevant to the production of a research result as clearly as is required by and is appropriate for the relevant subject area to allow the result to be reviewed and assessed. In general, this also includes documenting individual results that do not support the research hypothesis. The selection of results must be avoided. Where subject-specific recommendations exist for review and assessment, researchers create documentation in accordance with these guidelines. If the documentation does not satisfy these requirements, the constraints and the reasons for them are clearly explained. Documentation and research results must not be manipulated; they are protected as effectively as possible against manipulation.

Explanations:

An important basis for enabling replication is to make available the information necessary to understand the research (including the research data used or generated, the methodological, evaluation and analytical steps taken, and, if relevant, the development of the hypothesis), to ensure that citations are clear, and, as far as possible, to enable third parties to access this information. Where research software is being developed, the source code is documented.

Documentation concept

Even in the planning phase of a research project, it is important to consider conceptual questions regarding data management as well as the documentation of project progression, methods and results. Here, all parameters that are relevant and recognisably important to reproducibility are to be determined for the research question concerned and if necessary adapted over time on an ongoing basis. Ideally, clear procedures and standards should be established for this within the individual disciplines. The reasons why such procedures are not applied in exceptional cases should also be documented.

The comment belongs to the following categories:

GL12 (Engineering/engineering sciences) , GL12 (Natural sciences)

Keywords:

documentation replication/reproduction