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Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code still run?

Akin to archaeological digs for the digital age, participants’ experiences also suggest strategies for maximizing code reusability in the future. One common thread is that reproducibility-minded scientists need to up their documentation game. “In 2002, I felt like I would just remember everything forever,” says Karl Broman, a biostatistician at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It was only later that it became clear that you start to forget things within a month.”