Overcoming Barriers to Sharing Code
Talk summary from the Toronto Workshop on Reproducibility in February 2023.
alexander2023overcoming
Title: Overcoming barriers to sharing code. {2023}.
Author: Monica Alexander
Key words: Data Science, Reproducibility, Pedagogy.
In this conference talk, Monica Alexander discusses the structural and psychological barriers that prevent people from sharing their code. Drawing from her lived- and teaching-experience, Alexander argues that the most common reasons are low confidence and lack of exposure to open and reproducible workflows; she suggests how each of these could be built into existing teaching and research project workflows. These adaptations are important because people develop skills through imitation and repetition, overcoming their fear with each successful iteration: leading by example and creating opportunities for success both encourage code sharing. Experienced data scientists or course leaders are the intended audience for this talk, but its candid and supportive tone mean that it accessible to learners too.