[acadien]

I wish there was a way to do this in PDF. If PDFs weren't these cumbersome static things it could really change how information is spread in the sciences. At least in my field the current mode for disseminating information is nearly 100% through downloading PDFs from journals, which inherently prohibits interactivity and dynamic visualizations.

[xanmas]

I'm trying to push my research group to release our papers as iPython notebooks and it looks like my next paper will be. Our text will be rendered as normal markdown and our figures will be live figures with all the code that we used to generate them. This way, if anyone wants to check our work, extend it, or just better understand it, they're more than free to do so. It should be a nice step forward in the ultimate goal of reproducible science.

[acadien]

None of the journals I work with will accept any format other than .tex or .doc for submission, its pretty ridiculous. We totally rely on the journals to distribute information but they have no incentive to optimize the process for reproducability or ease of use. Don't get me started on publication fees and access fees.

[xanmas]

We're getting around this by putting a paragraph at the end of the conclusion with a link that says something to the effect of "Click here for a live version of the paper with all the code and data used in this project." It's a little more cumbersome than having the paper actually be the notebook but it helps.

[Someone]

What static files? I don't know how cumbersome it is, but Acrobat supports interactivity using JavaScript. See http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/filter/search&category=13&.... You can also embed Flash in Acrobat files.