Reproducible Research in Signal Processing - What, why, and how

Have you ever tried to reproduce the results presented in a research paper? For many of our current publications, this would unfortunately be a challenging task. For a computational algorithm, details such as the exact data set, initialization or termination procedures, and precise parameter values are often omitted in the publication for various reasons, such as a lack of space, a lack of self-discipline, or an apparent lack of interest to the readers, to name a few. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for someone else to obtain the same results. In our experience, it is often even worse as even we are not always able to reproduce our own experiments, making it difficult to answer questions from colleagues about details. Following are some examples of e-mails we have received: "I just read your paper X. It is very completely described, however I am confused by Y. Could you provide the implementation code to me for reference if possible?" "Hi! I am also working on a project related to X. I have implemented your algorithm but cannot get the same results as described in your paper. Which values should I use for parameters Y and Z?"