ExecutablePapers

While computational experiments have become an integral part of the scientific method, it is still a challenge to repeat such experiments, because often, computational experiments require specific hardware, non-trivial software installation, and complex manipulations to obtain results. We posit that integrating data acquisition, derivation, analysis, and visualization as executable components throughout the publication process will make it easier to generate and share repeatable results. We have built an extensible infrastructure to support the life-cycle of executable publications---their creation, review and re-use. Our focus is on papers whose computational experiments can be reproduced and validated. We note that our approach is orthogonal to others which focus on semantics and authoring, and can be combined with these.

Here's a position paper that details the challenges of computational repeatability and the solutions we have developed: http://www.cs.utah.edu/~juliana/pub/vistrails-executable-paper.pdf

To see our infrastructure in action, check out the following videos:

• Editing an executable paper written using LaTeX: View

• Editing a Web-hosted paper using MediaWiki and server-based computation: View