A goal of Duke University Libraries (DUL) is to support the  growing and changing needs of the Duke research community. This can take many forms. Within Data and Visualization Services, we provide learning opportunities, consulting services, and computational resources to help Duke researchers implement their data-driven research projects. Monitoring and assessing new tools and platforms also helps DUL stay in tune with changing research norms and practices. Today the increasing focus on the importance of transparency and reproducibility has resulted in the development of new tools  and resources to help researchers produce and share more reproducible results. One such tool is Code Ocean.

Code Ocean is a computational reproducibility platform that employs Docker technology to execute code in the cloud. The platform does two key things—it integrates the metadata, code, data and dependencies into a single ‘compute capsule’, ensuring that the code will run—and it does this in a single web interface that displays all inputs and results. Within the platform, it is possible to develop, edit or download the code, run routines, and visualize, save or download output, all from a personal computer. Users or reviewers can upload their own data and test the effects of changing parameters or modification of the code. Users can also share their data and code through the platform. Code Ocean provides a DOI for all capsules facilitating attribution and a permanent connection to any published work.

In order to help us understand and evaluate the usefulness of the Code Ocean platform to the Duke research community, DUL will be offering trial access to the Code Ocean cloud-based computational reproducibility platform starting on October 1, 2018. To learn more about what is included in the trial access and to sign up to participate, visit the Code Ocean pilot portal page.

If you have any questions, contact askdata@duke.edu.