EC-17.3 Reproducibility and Peer Review
You can say what makes a result reproducible, package your own work so that someone else could repeat it, review someone else's work usefully, and receive a review without treating it as an attack.
Before:OE1-1. Technical Writing SkillsEC-14. Engineering Design and System Integration
Reproducibility is presented here as an engineering property rather than a scientific virtue, because that is what makes it actionable: a result nobody can repeat is a result you cannot build on, including your own from six months ago. Reviewing is included because giving and receiving review well is a learnable skill and is almost never taught.
Work through these
What makes a result reproducible
The method, the exact conditions, the data, the tools and their versions. Anything a reader would have to guess at is a place where their attempt can differ from yours without either being wrong.
NPTEL: Research Methodology (IIT Madras) · CoursePackaging your own work so it can be repeated
Scripts rather than remembered steps, recorded versions rather than latest, and raw data kept alongside the processed results. The first person this helps is you, six months later.
NPTEL: Research Methodology (IIT Madras) · CourseWhy results fail to reproduce, without anyone lying
An undocumented setting, a difference in a tool version, a selection made unconsciously, or a result that was always partly chance. All four are common and none involves dishonesty.
NPTEL: Research Methodology (IIT Madras) · CourseReviewing someone else's work usefully
Say what the work does well, what would change your assessment, and what is unclear rather than what is wrong in your taste. A review that only lists faults is less useful than one that ranks them.
NPTEL: Technical Communication for Engineers (IIT Roorkee) · CourseReceiving a review
Separate the reviewer's conclusion from their reasoning, and answer the reasoning. A reviewer who misread something has usually found a place where the writing was unclear, which is still your finding.
NPTEL: Technical Communication for Engineers (IIT Roorkee) · CourseThe limits of review, honestly stated
Review catches unclear reasoning, missing controls and overstated conclusions. It rarely catches fabricated data or a subtle equipment fault, and treating it as a guarantee of correctness is a mistake.
NPTEL: Research Methodology (IIT Madras) · Course
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