Abstract
The reproducibility crisis was sparked five years ago by a Nature survey
that revealed most researchers have tried and failed to reproduce
another scientist’s experiments (Baker, 2016). Although the severity of
the crisis is still being debated, it has spurred researchers to include
reproducibility and open science practices in their work. To that end,
the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC) encourages members of the
heliophysics community to create “executable papers,” which are
interactive pieces of software that combine text, data, and code to
enable readers to reproduce every step taken to arrive at a
publication’s conclusions. We describe the development of an executable
paper—in this case, one centered around magnetopause boundary
crossings in satellite data—our coordination efforts between
scientists and software developers, and the current technology that
makes this possible. We aim to promote this novel paper format and be an
example to the heliophysics community of how scientists and software
developers can work together to produce research that is transparent and
reproducible.