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= Guidelines for authors of computer experiments in computer algebra =

This is still work in progress, so the information may be incomplete.
Feedback is very welcome.

== Motivation ==
The main motivation is to make communication of computer experiments more efficient:
* It should be easy for other mathematicians to reproduce the results of computer experiments. The hard part should always be the mathematics.
* Computer experiments have become an integral part of publications, even in pure mathematics. Thus it is necessary to ensure high quality such that this part of a paper may also be refereed.
* High quality documentation ensures that a computer experiment may be reproduced 100 years from now, even if it means reimplementation in new software.

== Environment ==
This section contains pointers what needs to be recorded for other people to be able to understand and reproduce the experiment.

=== Hardware ===
* Type of machine if applicable
* CPU information
* Memory information

=== Software ===
* Operating system with version
* Software used with version

== Experiment details ==
* Collect all your code
* Make sure your code is easy to read, adhering to the principles of clean code is a good idea
* It may take some time for a reader to understand your code. It should not take time to make it run. Provide a central script that reruns your experiment.
* Provide any in- and output data from your experiment. If it is large consider uploading it to a service like [https://zenodo.org/ zenodo].
* If your environment is complicated to set up, consider providing a Docker container or a Vagrant virtual machine.