I have prepared a draft of an article on reproducible research methods that I was invited to contribute to the Encyclopedia of Applied and Computational Mathematics to be published by Springer. [Update: I just checked with Springer and the $5000 price quoted is not a typo. Needless to say I'm not happy about this! I'm looking into it further.] [Further update on 29 Feb 2012: I've been told that the price on that webpage was a mistake and it's a mystery how it got in the database. That was last week and it's still there...]
I welcome comments on this draft, either sent by email or posted below. Note that this article was greatly constrained in size (it may be too long already) and so I was very selective in what to include, but if you think I’ve neglected something important I will consider it.
I have avoided mentioning specific tools (other than some version control
systems) since there are a so many out there it would be hard to choose
which to point out, and hard to know which will stand the test of time.
I have included only two references, selected primarily as sources of other links.
A very good reference about generic version control systems is Version Control by Example by Erik Sink. It is a very pleasant read that summarises the history of VCSs and provides examples of using subversion, git, and mercurial (and others, I think). Anyway, you may wish to insert a citation to Sink’s work if you want to avoid naming specific VCSs.
Good idea, thanks!
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Aside from the aspect of price, there is the question of usability of a reference work of some magnitude, as I suppose this would be. As an example, have a look at Encyclopedia of Algorithms (0387307702 ISBN) which is in SpringerLink. This work is a mere 1,200 pages. But it seems to me that Springer and their platform provider MetaPress have given zero thought to what aspects of a reference work afford an overview to the user. On this basis alone I discarded any thoughts I previously had of introducing this particular work to a group of incoming students who might have otherwise found overview material useful.