Collaborative Research: Elements: TRAnsparency CErtified (TRACE): Trusting Computational Research Without Repeating It

自然科学和社会科学领域的研究界越来越关注通过计算手段获得的结果的透明度和可重复性。在同行评审期刊的政策和用于创建通过科学网关、数据门户和统计机构提供的研究数据产品的处理流程中，可以找到提高透明度的呼声。这些社区认识到，当无法追踪其谱系或验证其生产时，已发布结果和数据产品的完整性是不确定的。通过重复计算和比较结果来验证计算工件的透明度或可重复性是昂贵、耗时且困难的，如果研究产品依赖于受到合法限制（例如使用敏感或专有数据）的资源，则可能不可行；流式、瞬态或短暂数据；以及仅对经过批准或授权的用户可用的大规模或专门的计算资源。 TRACE 项目正在通过一种称为“认证透明度”的方法来解决这个问题，即由执行计算的系统签署的值得信赖的计算记录。使用 TRACE，系统所有者和操作员可以验证生成结果或数据产品的计算工作流程的原始执行情况。通过使用支持 TRACE 的系统，研究人员可以生成不再需要验证的透明计算工件，从而减轻期刊编辑和审稿人寻求确保计算结果的可重复性和透明度的负担。 TRACE 提出了一种创新且有效的方法来确保使用计算方法的研究的透明度，与国家科学院概述的愿景一致，并能够基于透明和值得信赖的科学进行循证决策。TRACE 项目的中心目标是开发、验证和实施经过认证的透明度的技术模型。这包括一组基础设施元素，系统所有者可以使用这些元素来（1）声明其平台支持的计算透明度的维度； (2) 证明特定的计算工作流程在平台上执行； (3) 捆绑工件、其执行记录、有关其内容的技术元数据，并验证它们的传播。该项目的第一阶段重点是开发概念模型和技术规范，可用于验证系统的描述，称为透明度认证系统（TRACE系统），以及工件及其执行记录的聚合，称为透明度认证研究对象（TRO）。 第二阶段的重点是开发实施 TRACE 模型和方法的可重用软件组件。为了证明经过认证的透明度，该工具包用于支持 TRACE 的现有平台，包括 Whole Tale、SKOPE 和 SLURM 工作负载管理器。这些支持 TRACE 的系统生成经过认证的 TRO，这些 TRO 值得信赖，不需要重复或重新执行来验证所获得的结果是否如所声称的那样。高级网络基础设施办公室颁发的这一奖项得到了社会、行为和经济科学理事会内的社会和经济科学部的共同支持；该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Research communities across the natural and social sciences are increasingly concerned about the transparency and reproducibility of results obtained by computational means. Calls for increased transparency can be found in the policies of peer-reviewed journals and processing pipelines employed in the creation of research data products made available through science gateways, data portals, and statistical agencies. These communities recognize that the integrity of published results and data products is uncertain when it is not possible to trace their lineage or validate their production. Verifying the transparency or reproducibility of computational artifacts—by repeating computations and comparing results—is expensive, time-consuming, and difficult, and may be infeasible if the research products rely on resources that are subject to legitimate restrictions such as the use of sensitive or proprietary data; streaming, transient, or ephemeral data; and large-scale or specialized computational resources available only to approved or authorized users. The TRACE project is addressing this problem through an approach called certified transparency - a trustworthy record of computations signed by the systems within which they were performed. Using TRACE, system owners and operators certify the original execution of a computational workflow that produces findings or data products. By using a TRACE-enabled system, researchers produce transparent computational artifacts that no longer require verification, reducing burden on journal editors and reviewers seeking to ensure reproducibility and transparency of computational results. TRACE presents an innovative and efficient approach to ensuring the transparency of research that uses computational methods, is consistent with the vision outlined by the National Academies, and enables evidence-based policymaking based on transparent and trustworthy science.The central goal of the TRACE project is the development, validation, and implementation of a technical model of certified transparency. This includes a set of infrastructure elements that can be employed by system owners to (1) declare the dimensions of computational transparency supported by their platforms; (2) certify that a specific computational workflow was executed on the platform; and (3) bundle artifacts, records of their execution, technical metadata about their contents, and certify them for dissemination. The first phase of the project focuses on the development of a conceptual model and technical specification that can be used to certify the description of a system, termed a Transparency-Certified System (TRACE system), and the aggregation of artifacts along with records of their execution, termed Transparency-Certified Research Objects (TROs). The second phase focuses on the development of reusable software components implementing the TRACE model and approach. To demonstrate certified transparency, the toolkit is used to TRACE-enable existing platforms including Whole Tale, SKOPE, and the SLURM workload manager. These TRACE-enabled systems produce certified TROs that can be trusted and do not need to be repeated or re-executed to verify that results were obtained as claimed.This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Division of Social and Economic Sciences within the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences; and by the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.