Reuse, remix, repeat: The workflows of MIR

Many solutions for the reuse and remixing of MIR methods and the tools implementing them have been introduced over recent years. Proposals for achieving the necessary interoperability have ranged from shared software libraries and interfaces, through common frameworks and portals, to standardised file formats and metadata. Each proposal shares the desire to reuse and combine repurposable components into assemblies (or "workflows") that can be used in novel and possibly more ambitious ways. Reuse and remixing also have great implications for the process of MIR research. The encapsulation of any algorithm and its operation - including inputs, parameters, and outputs - is fundamental to the repeatability and reproducibility of any experiment. This is desirable both for the open and reliable evaluation of algorithms (e.g. in MIREX) and for the advancement of MIR by building more effectively upon prior research. At present there is no clear best practice widely adopted throughout the community. Should this be considered a failure? Are there limits to interoperability unique to MIR, and how might they be overcome? In this paper we assess contemporary MIR solutions to these issues, aligning them with the emerging notion of Research Objects for reproducible research in other domains, and propose their adoption as a route to reuse in MIR.