Open Code in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: An Evidence-Based Appraisal by SORTEE

Edward Richard Ivimey-Cook , Kevin R Bairos-Novak, Daniel Morillo, Shinichi Nakagawa , Julia Sharapi, Elina Takola , Joel L Pick 

1. Open Code is the practice of publicly archiving analysis or software code in a manner that follows FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) guiding principles. This allows for increased transparency of data processing and analysis, and facilitates computational reproducibility of research results.
2. The empirical evidence for the general benefits of Open Code mostly focuses on the increase in computational reproducibility and citation count. Without code, the ability to computationally reproduce results is limited. However, even when present, low-quality code can still hamper reproducibility. The evidence for increased citation counts is mixed. There is no empirical evidence of any cost to Open Code.
3. Research in Ecology and Evolution focuses predominantly on the availability of Open Code alongside published articles, which remains low.