[mugsie]

or, you know, publish the formula, so readers can reproduce in whatever language / system they want.

Reproducibility is a big push.... but not like you are suggesting. Shipping a dockerfile is the equivalent of saying "This works, if you use this flask, this pipette, this GCMS and this piece of litmus paper"

Docker is not the only solution to problems. It solves some, but you can't tack it on to everything.

[log_n]

Why not both? I am not in academia but I was under the impression that some academics might be publishing 'questionable' results that cannot be reproduced at all in order get their paper count up for tenure review. Not to mention puff-pieces from industry that basically serve as PR in peer reviewed journals without furthering their discipline.

So shipping working code (even if it comes with a required pipette) might be a nice requirement for a peer reviewed publication to take on in order to keep their journal relevant. Shipping in Docker or similar guarantees reproducibility.

[collyw]

If the code is crap, and only works on one particular data set, then putting it in a docker container ain't going to help.