Hello! I cannot believe this is my last learning log. It feels like yesterday that I was sitting in the Mathews CATS room. Alas, all good things must come to an end… <3

Computational reproducibility

Although I was vaguely aware of the replication crisis, I did not really understand the extent of it. Before starting the verification task, it was really easy to say “researchers should just share their code and then we would be able to reproduce everything”. However, I did learn the hard way that just sharing the code is definitely not enough.

I’ve shared my thoughts on this in my presentation already, but to reiterate, just because the code is open does not mean it is easy to understand and reproduce. Plots and tables were difficult to reproduce without a proper explanation of what the variables meant, why variables were renamed/reordered, or what functions or packages they used.

I also learned on the other end how hard it is to create a comprehensible R Markdown file. I can understand why most researchers do not engage in rubber duck coding - it’s a really long and hard process! At this point, I have finished up my report and with 1200+ lines of code, I grew tired of explaining exactly what I did. So, kudos to researchers that have fully rubber duck coded their code.

Coding and R

I will say that I have gained some newfound respect for my Computer Science friends. I know that RStudio is nowhere near as hard as what they do, but even I struggled with doing this. I cannot imagine coding as my career.

Coding and R has taught me that my patience is way too thin for coding. Although, when you do get something right, the satisfaction is like no other. I really did enjoy learning new functions and putting them into use, and when all of my functions worked together, it sooooo satisfying!

Although R caused me so much pain, it did cause joy too (sometimes)!

What makes a good team

As many others would also admit, I have had my fair share of terrible group assignments. I will also say that this group assignment was not one of those.

Thank you to Victor, Jess and Sam for being amazing and working so hard! I definitely could not have done the verification part without you guys.

I think that this group assignment has really taught me that 4 heads are better than 1. With terrible group assignments, I have often thought “god, I wish I could just do this assignment myself!”. This group assignment had taught me the complete opposite though. Whenever I was truly stumped, one of my team members would provide me with a solution that I would never have even considered.

Overall, I think I can say I enjoy group assignments a tiny bit more than I did before <3 (and sorry that you still hate meetings Victor).

Final words

Many thanks to Jenny Richmond, Kate, Jenny S, Group 4 and every other classmate for making this term so wonderful! R was really hard for me, so without the right guidance or company I would have definitely had a harder time.

I hope I will see you guys around, and good luck for your verification reports!