Articles | Volume 19, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2407-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2407-2026
Review and perspective paper
 | 
25 Mar 2026
Review and perspective paper |  | 25 Mar 2026

Best practices in software development for robust and reproducible geoscientific models based on insights from the Global Carbon Budget's dynamic vegetation models

Konstantin Gregor, Benjamin F. Meyer, Tillmann Gaida, Victor Justo Vasquez, Karina Bett-Williams, Matthew Forrest, João P. Darela-Filho, Sam Rabin, Marcos Longo, Joe R. Melton, Johan Nord, Peter Anthoni, Vladislav Bastrikov, Thomas Colligan, Christine Delire, Michael C. Dietze, George Hurtt, Akihiko Ito, Lasse T. Keetz, Jürgen Knauer, Johannes Köster, Tzu-Shun Lin, Lei Ma, Marie Minvielle, Stefan Olin, Sebastian Ostberg, Hao Shi, Reiner Schnur, Qing Sun, Peter E. Thornton, and Anja Rammig

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Cited articles

Añel, J. A., García-Rodríguez, M., and Rodeiro, J.: Current status on the need for improved accessibility to climate models code, Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 923–934, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-923-2021, 2021. a
Baker, M.: 1,500 Scientists Lift the Lid on Reproducibility, Nature, 533, 452–454, https://doi.org/10.1038/533452a, 2016. a
Barton, C. M., Lee, A., Janssen, M. A., Van Der Leeuw, S., Tucker, G. E., Porter, C., Greenberg, J., Swantek, L., Frank, K., Chen, M., and Jagers, H. R. A.: How to Make Models More Useful, P. Natl. Acad. Sci., 119, e2202112119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202112119, 2022. a, b
Best, M. J., Pryor, M., Clark, D. B., Rooney, G. G., Essery, R. L. H., Ménard, C. B., Edwards, J. M., Hendry, M. A., Porson, A., Gedney, N., Mercado, L. M., Sitch, S., Blyth, E., Boucher, O., Cox, P. M., Grimmond, C. S. B., and Harding, R. J.: The Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), model description – Part 1: Energy and water fluxes, Geosci. Model Dev., 4, 677–699, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-4-677-2011, 2011. a
Breier, J., Ostberg, S., Wirth, S. B., Minoli, S., Stenzel, F., Hötten, D., and Müller, C.: lpjmlkit: Toolkit for Basic LPJmL Handling, Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7773134, 2025. a
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Editorial statement
The manuscript presents a perspective on the reproducibility of geoscientific models, which fits in the type of manuscript.
Short summary
Geoscientific models are crucial for understanding Earth’s processes. However, they sometimes do not adhere to highest software quality standards, and scientific results are often hard to reproduce due to the complexity of the workflows. Here we gather the expertise of 20 modeling groups and software engineers to define best practices for making geoscientific models maintainable, usable, and reproducible. We conclude with an open-source example serving as a reference for modeling communities.
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