Reproducible Reports

Overview

At this point in the course, we anticipate that you’re likely approaching the end of your team’s synthesis project (see our suggested milestones page for more information). As the end of your project and the course as a whole nears, it might be valuable for your group to consider how you can reproducibly document all of the work you’ve been doing for the last several months. Reproducible reports (e.g., RMarkdown files, Quarto documents, etc.) can be an effective way of documenting your results in a format that allows you to leverage both your technical skills and your scientific communication skills. This module focuses on the structure and content of these reports from a primarily technical lens, so please consult the communicating findings module for the team science perspective.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module you will be able to:

  • Describe contexts where RMarkdown/Quarto documents are useful
  • Identify the three fundamental elements of RMarkdown/Quarto documents
  • Use Markdown syntax to accomplish text styling
  • Create reports that use a blend of plain text and embedded code to effectively communicate rationale, methodologies, and primary findings
  • Make a (small) Quarto website
  • Deploy a website and/or report through GitHub Pages

Purpose & Value

Script vs. Markdown Decision

See here for more information.

Report Structure

  1. YAML
  2. Plain (markdown format) text
  3. Embedded code chunks

Markdown Syntax

Applications

  • Static PDF/HTML files
  • Full manuscripts
  • Deployed website
    • Incl. GitHub Pages/Actions?

Additional Resources

Papers & Documents

Workshops & Courses

Websites