Paper2Code: Automating Code Generation from Scientific Papers in Machine Learning

Bridging the Code Gap: How PaperCoder Transforms Scientific Papers into Working Code

Only 21.23% of machine learning papers include their code, creating a massive reproducibility bottleneck for researchers. PaperCoder changes this with an AI framework that automatically converts research papers into fully functional code repositories.

PaperCoder overview and the code availability gap in machine learning research. Images from the paper.

The Reproducibility Challenge in Machine Learning

Machine learning research progresses rapidly, but corresponding code implementations frequently remain unavailable. This forces researchers to invest substantial time and effort reverse-engineering methods from papers, significantly slowing scientific innovation.

Recent advances in LLMs have demonstrated impressive capabilities in code understanding and generation. Models like Llama 3, GPT-4, and Gemini show potential for accelerating scientific workflows by generating high-quality code. However, most current approaches to automating experimentation assume access to existing implementations or well-defined APIs.

PaperCoder tackles a more fundamental challenge: generating complete, faithful code implementations solely from research papers without relying on prior code or additional materials.

The PaperCoder Framework: A Multi-Stage Approach

PaperCoder adopts a structured approach mirroring established software engineering principles. The system decomposes the complex paper-to-code transformation into three sequential stages: planning, analysis, and generation.

Comparison between naive direct generation and PaperCoder’s structured three-stage approach.

Planning Stage: Creating the Blueprint

Research papers contain substantial information not directly relevant to implementation. The planning stage distills the paper into structured components essential for code development: