DOCX: Demo, Open source, Chinese version, and eXplain Initiative
Back to a decade ago, when I started my research as a Ph.D. student, open source was not the default option for most research projects. For each new project, people have to spend a lot of effort to reproduce related previous works. However, a slightly complicated project will be affected by many details. The most painful thing for reproduction is not the workload of the repetitive work but to guess the unclear details missed in the paper. As such, the reproduced version is usually not as good as the author’s original version (after all, most authors spent a lot of effort to polish these project details). Beginning in 2011, I gradually developed the habit of open source. I try to open source the code and data in my scientific research as much as possible under the permission of confidentiality and commercial agreements. A few years later, I suddenly realized that most of the code and data that I did not open source in time were lost due to the change of institution or equipment replacement. To facilitate the scientific research community and for the convenience of everyone, I propose the following initiative to open source and share scientific research records. Borrowing the file name suffix of Word software, I summarized this initiative as the DOCX initiative.
Demo: Online interaction convenient teaching and popular science. Try to make an online demo for each problem involved in your research paper. A demo is convenient for you to demonstrate your idea at any time, convenient for class teaching of teachers in the same field, and convenient for the public to know what the current technical level of science can do. Among all the 4 DOCX initiatives, only this one is optional for our research projects as some projects are not suitable for interesting demos. For example, the Demo program of our lab is keep updating: https://mmcheng.net/category/demo/.
Open source: To avoid unnecessary reproduction of previous works, I would recommend opening the code of each paper. Since most funding in a public institution come from the government and the public, most scientific research results, including source code and experimental data, are obliged to be open to the public.
Chinese version (native language version): For many non-native English speakers, including myself, reading the native language version is significantly better than the English version of the same paper in terms of reading speed, depth of understanding, and memorization. However, due to international scientific research influence, impartiality, and authority of review, top academic journals in English are still difficult to bypass. Therefore, I suggest sharing a native language translation version of your paper published in top English conferences or journals for the convenience of non-native English speakers.
eXplain: The authors of the paper should reply promptly after receiving these comments. When reading papers, people often encounter doubts and hope to discuss with the authors and researchers in the same field. At the same time, the authors also hope to hear feedback from their colleagues. Therefore, I suggest that everyone establish a project homepage for each of their papers, so readers can leave messages on the homepage if they have questions.
I have been implementing open source and answering questions (eXplain) initiatives mentioned above for many years. I believe that I am the one that benefited the most from communicating and sharing with the academic community. This process inspired me to expand my knowledge and contributes to the formation of many new ideas. Such examples can be found through the source code and project page links behind each paper on my homepage https://mmcheng.net/publications/.
Scientific research in our field has developed rapidly in recent years. But we still often need to implement other people’s work and struggle with why the results are so different. We have seen many cool results in the paper, but trying these new technologies is not easy and convenient. As a member of the scientific research community, I call on everyone to jointly contribute to the healthier development of the entire ecology. At the same time, everyone will benefit more from the development of this ecology.
Note: The Chinese version of the DOCX initiatives was published on Oct. 7th, 2020 [1].