Reproducibility and Accessibility in Geoscientific Research: Challenges, Solutions, and Community Perspectives

Geoscientific models play a pivotal role in understanding global change impacts on the Earth system and are therefore highly relevant for decision-making. However, their complexity—including the combination of pre-processing, modeling, and post-processing workflows—poses significant challenges to reproducibility and accessibility, even when adhering to FAIR data principles.

Here, we present insights from the land surface modeling community, based on a survey of the 20 dynamic global vegetation models participating in the Global Carbon Project. Our findings reveal substantial room for improvement in software engineering and reproducibility practices and underscore the potential benefits of sharing best practices across modeling communities.

To address these challenges, we highlight tools such as versioning, workflow management systems, containerization, automated documentation, and continuous integration and deployment. These approaches enable reproducible, portable, and automated workflows, ensure code correctness, and facilitate stakeholder access to scientific results.

Finally, we present a showcase of a fully reproducible and portable workflow based on the LPJ-GUESS model, demonstrating how these practices can be implemented and adapted by other modeling communities. This can serve as a resource for improving reproducibility and accessibility, and advancing software engineering standards across geoscientific fields.