Publishing Identifiable Experiment Code And Configuration Is Important, Good and Easy

Abstract

We argue for the value of publishing the exact code, configuration and data processing scripts used to produce empirical work in robotics. In particular, we recommend publishing a unique identifier for the code package in the paper itself, as a promise to the reader that this is the relavant code. We review some recent discussion of best practice for reproducibility in various professional organisations and journals, and discuss the current reward structure for publishing code in robotics, along with some ideas for improvement.