AI Copilots for Reproducibility in Science: A Case Study

arXiv:2506.20130v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Open science initiatives seek to make research outputs more transparent, accessible, and reusable, but ensuring that published findings can be independently reproduced remains a persistent challenge. This paper introduces OpenPub, an AI-powered platform that supports researchers, reviewers, and readers through a suite of modular copilots focused on key open science tasks. In this work, we present the Reproducibility Copilot, which analyzes manuscripts, code, and supplementary materials to generate structured Jupyter Notebooks and recommendations aimed at facilitating computational, or “rote”, reproducibility. We conducted feasibility tests using previously studied research papers with known reproducibility benchmarks. Results indicate that OpenPub can substantially reduce reproduction time – from over 30 hours to about 1 hour – while achieving high coverage of figures, tables, and results suitable for computational reproduction. The system systematically detects barriers to reproducibility, including missing hyperparameters, undocumented preprocessing steps, and incomplete or inaccessible datasets. These findings suggest that AI-driven tools can meaningfully reduce the burden of reproducibility efforts and contribute to more transparent and verifiable scientific communication. The modular copilot architecture also provides a foundation for extending AI assistance to additional open science objectives beyond reproducibility.



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