Introduction

Research Software includes source code files, algorithms, scripts, computational workflows and executables that were created during the research process or for a research purpose. Software components (e.g., operating systems, libraries, dependencies, packages, scripts,etc.) that are used for research but were not created during or with a clear research intent should be considered software in research and not Research Software. This differentiation may vary between disciplines.

  • Findable: Software, and its associated metadata, is easy for both humans and machines to find.

  • Accessible: Software, and its metadata, is retrievable via standardised protocols.

  • Interoperable: Software interoperates with other software by exchanging data and/or metadata, and/or through interaction via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), described through standards.

  • Reusable: Software is both usable (can be executed) and reusable (can be understood, modified, built upon, or incorporated into other software).

Software Managagement plan: Planning ahead

Copyright and Licenses

DOIs and RepositoriesDOIsRepositories

  • DOIs are persistent identifiers that should always point to your code.
  • They should be maintained by the minting organisation, making them stronger than a URL.
  • DOIs can handle multiple versions of the same object.
  • Some repositories mint DOIs for deposits.
  • There are numerous repositories available and you should consider what you want from one
  • Some are better than others depending on your purpose and needs
  • GitHub doesn’t mint DOIs, but you can link your GitHub repos to a repository that does

Metadata and CitationMetadataCitation

  • Metadata helps drive discovery of your software
  • It’s easy to not include key elements as these are ‘obvious’
  • Standardisation of metadata is useful to help tools use the metadata
  • Citation is important to ensure that the correct recognition and credit is assigned to all work
  • Citation of software differs from that of articles, but is needed to aid the reproducibility of work
  • CITATION.cff files should contain all the necessary metadata and help create citations for use.
  • You may need to complete the relevant fields in multiple places to ensure correct citation in all cases.