for managing the full suite of research outputs such as datasets, statistical code, figures, lab notes, and manuscripts.” “... this tool can be leveraged to make science more reproducible and transparent, foster new collaborations, and support novel uses.” Ram Source Code for Biology and Medicine 2013, 8:7 http://www.scfbm.org/content/8/1/7 BRIEF REPORTS Open Access Git can facilitate greater reproducibility and increased transparency in science Karthik Ram Abstract Background: Reproducibility is the hallmark of good science. Maintaining a high degree of transparency in scientific reporting is essential not just for gaining trust and credibility within the scientific community but also for facilitating the development of new ideas. Sharing data and computer code associated with publications is becoming increasingly common, motivated partly in response to data deposition requirements from journals and mandates from funders. Despite this increase in transparency, it is still difficult to reproduce or build upon the findings of most scientific publications without access to a more complete workflow. Findings: Version control systems (VCS), which have long been used to maintain code repositories in the software industry, are now finding new applications in science. One such open source VCS, Git, provides a lightweight yet GitHub repository for this paper: https://github.com/karthik/smb_git Ram: Git can facilitate greater reproducibility and increased transparency in science. Source Code for Biology and Medicine 2013 8:7. doi:10.1186/1751-0473-8-7